I think I like like you too
by jake111
Summary: McKenna has a good life in the vault, a loving father, loyal friends, and the best girlfriend she could ask for. But when her father disappears and she and her friends are forced out of the vault, she will have to fight for every minute of her survival. LW/Amata friendship and major romance.
1. Chapter 1

McKenna walked into her father's clinic; she had been inside so many times before over her 10 years but never had she felt the fear she felt now. "Alright sweetie just get on the table and we can begin" said her father. Seeing her fear, McKenna's best friend Amata wrapped her arms around McKenna's waist and said "hey don't worry so much, I'll be right here the whole time and after that we can go suck down so much ice cream we explode, KABOOM!" McKenna smiled at that; Mata always had a way to make her feel better. "Ok but you better not hog the sprinkles" she said.

McKenna pulled herself up on top of the operating table and removed her clothes before laying back. "Ok sweetie I'm afraid we can't use anesthetic as that would counteract the nerve agent, so I won't lie to you this will hurt" said her father as he prepped the needle containing the agent. I know that, I've known that since you first told me when I was six, thought McKenna. McKenna had an IQ of 293, the highest ever scored. She had an eidetic memory and had passed every class in the vault by age seven and now spent her days either in the vault library taking in everything from detective novels to books on military tactics or in the vault gym working her muscles and practicing gymnastics.

McKenna took in a breath and gripped Amata's hand tightly as the nerve agent was injected, within seconds she was completely paralyzed. "Ok honey I'm going to begin" said her father as he began cutting into her arm. The pain was intense as the main implant hookup was implanted into the top of her left hand. That would make it where only she could remove the control gauntlet; the implant looked like ten small hexagonal data ports going up her arm. She would not receive the control gauntlet until her birthday party. Then he moved up her arm slowly running micro wires along her nervous system and placing conduction hubs on nerve clusters.

The wires had to be placed along the nerves to allow the use of V.A.T.S. or Vault Assisted Targeting System. This would allow her to think and move at incredible speeds by forcing her nervous system into overdrive. The wires would also help speed up her body's healing process, according to what she had read you could be hit with a frag grenade and a few hours of sleep later you would be completely healed. Her father was also setting up peripheral intravenous lines. These were so that her pip boy could monitor her internal radiation levels and so that any anti radiation drugs or healing stimulants would go straight into her blood stream.

Each new touch came as a burst of excruciating pain and McKenna wanted to scream but couldn't. Amata had to let go of her hand as McKenna's father worked on her right arm but Even though the pain was blinding she saw Amata's eyes'. Her friend, her best friend, always there no matter what. Though the agonized tears blurring McKenna's vision she saw the deep Amber pools. She grasped onto them, focused everything she had into staring into Amata's eyes and it was the only thing keeping her from blacking out.

Once he had finished with her arms, her father implanted the main sensory hub in the back of her skull and connected it to the electrical synapses in her brain. After which he connected the sensory hub to her optical, cochlear, nasal, and Pharyngeal nerves. These were also to aid in V.A.T.S. Then he began to run the wires down her spinal cord and all of the nerves in the torso before moving down her legs. The pain was becoming too much to handle and Amata gripping her hand like a vise was one of the only reasons McKenna was still conscious. Finally her father stitched her up and injected her with a super stimpack and gave her the antidote to the nerve agent.

Ten minute later she was able to get up and Amata helped her back into her jumpsuit. The two then headed down to the cafeteria and sat down. Within five minutes Amata walked back to McKenna with two bowls of chocolate ice cream doused in sprinkles. The two girls shoveled mouthful after mouthful of ice cream down their throats. Finally, after three bowls each, the girls finally finish and McKenna said "listen Mata, I kind of have to tell you something" "what is it" replied Amata, "I I think I like you like, like like you" said McKenna and the second she said that Amata leaned over the table and pecked her on the lips, then said "you know, I think I like like you too".


	2. Chapter 2

McKenna awoke with a start. For a second, she didn't know where she was. Then she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and saw that she was in her room and the soft warm pillow she was laying on was Amata. "Mata, time to wake up" in the two years since she and Amata had covertly decided too be together, Amata had started staying over; A lot. This had not done her much credit with the overseer. They still hadn't told their fathers, though they suspected that McKenna's father knew but they were not sure.

"Huhhh five more minutes please" said Amata, at that McKenna's hand went to her bedside table and found the pen with no ink in it in the same spot she kept it for moments just like this. She grabbed it and pressed the pointed end into the large nerve cluster in her thigh and clicked the point driving in the carefully sharpened point. "Yowww" squealed Amata as she bolted upright, "did you have to do that" said Amata as she gave McKenna a look that could kill. "Hey, you should have gotten up when I asked nicely" McKenna said "now get dressed and let's grab some breakfast, we have work to do".

So they both got dressed and headed for the cafeteria to grab some Nuka Cola, some waffles for McKenna, and pancakes for Amata. "Waffles are so much better than pancakes" said McKenna, "oh no pancakes kick waffles ass" replies Amata. "Oh yeah" said McKenna, "yep" said Amata as she took one of the blueberries off of the top of her pancakes, placed it on her fork, bent the fork back, and launched the berry at McKenna's face. She caught it in her front teeth and rolled it back and forth on her front teeth before swallowing it whole and chasing it down with a swig of Nuka Cola, by now Amata could barely contain her giggles at McKenna's little show. When suddenly they heard a yell, "GIRLS" and they both turned to see Jonas looking at them breathlessly.

"Girls one of the power capacitors blew down in maintenance and the clinic is overflowing, James needs help". The girls had spent the last two years volunteering at the clinic whenever they could. The girls immediately stood up and ran as quick as they could after Jonas, when they got to the clinic they could hear the moans of the wounded. McKenna's father looked up from the person he was pulling shrapnel from and said "girls, I need you to deal with the patients over there.

The girls took the closest person they could, who had extensive burns but no shrapnel. "Check the breathing" said McKenna, "passage clear, breathing heightened but steady" replied Amata, "let's get a phlebocatheter in the sub clavicle", "check the vitals"," Pulse, arterial pressure, temperature, and respiration frequency are rising"," he's waking up hit him with twenty two liters of Med-X", "lets set up a steady IV of stims and move on to the next one" said McKenna.

It continued on and on, electrical burns, chemical burns from the lubrication they were putting on the capacitor, shrapnel embedded into all possible places, and they were just taking the other cases while James and Jonas worked on the most severe cases. Finally, they were just cleaning up the clinic and making the overnight cases comfortable. "Man, that was intense" said Amata, "yeah I was worried when that guy flat lined and it took three hits from the defibrillator to get his heart going again" said McKenna, "hey want to head down to the reactor level and take a few shots with your BB gun" "sure".

After they had finished up at the clinic they headed down to the storeroom where McKenna's old firing range was located. Since the first time her father had brought her down there, McKenna had recruited Amata and set to work renovating the place. They had scrounged up a few old arm chairs and couches as well as an old bed and a bookshelf from the lower living quarters; they had been abandoned and sealed off due to rad roaches slipping in, they had also smuggled a few mats out of the vault gym and set up a work bench, plus they had rerouted an old terminal and had managed to figure out the passwords for every system except for the overseer's personal system.

"How are we today ladies" said McKenna's personal favorite addition to their hideout, Alfred, McKenna had found the mister handy on one of their scavenging missions into the abandoned portions of the vault and decided to reprogram him. "Exhausted, get me a Nuka Cola and fetch my old BB gun from the armory" said McKenna. The armory was where they stored all of the weapons they found while scavenging. So far they had found three baseball bats, six police batons, and two ten millimeter pistols.

After Alfred returned with the Nuka Cola and gun, Amata began taking shots at the targets while McKenna just dropped into one of the old armchairs and started on some book she had found in her dads old things. It was written entirely in Chinese but she had memorized the entirety of the Mandarin and Cantonese languages, how he had gotten a hold of a copy of the Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual was beyond her, but she didn't really care. If you ignored all of the propaganda it was a good read.

"When are you going to put down the books and pick up the gun" said Amata, "how about we trade you read up on infiltration techniques" replied McKenna with more than a hint of her grin conveyed into her words. "No way then I would have to download Chinese into my sensory hub and you know that I use that space for-" "so this is where you brats hang out" said a loud and obnoxious voice that they both recognized instantly.

"Butch, why don't you and your tunnel rats go chase a rad roach" said McKenna, "its tunnel snakes, and no you two are leaving, this is the new official hideout of the tunnel snakes, the worst gang in the vault" said butch and one of his two cronies, Wally Mack, sniggered. "Maybe we should just leave them alone Butch, we could find a different hideout" said Paul, the one who in McKenna's mind was a good if somewhat misguided person.

"Paul is right Butch, if you're smart you will leave now and we won't have to hurt you" said Amata as she turned the BB gun toward Wally as inconspicuously as she could. "Beat us up, you, your just a pair of girls HAHAHAHAHA" said Butch as he and Wally began laughing their heads off and Paul was starting to look a little bit afraid.

McKenna and Amata looked at each other and then back at the three intruders. They both clicked the V.A.T.S. buttons on their control gauntlets and within seconds Amata had landed three BBs into Wally's groin and McKenna had grabbed the baseball bat next to the armchair and charged at Butch, within five seconds she was across the room, and she slammed the butt of the bat into his stomach then flipped the bat slamming the opposite end into Butch's crotch. "Let me be clear Butch, you are going to walk away, you are not going to comeback, and if you tell anyone about this place not only will we beat you within an inch of your life, we will make sure that everyone knows that you were beat up by two girls and make you a laughingstock, got it" McKenna said in a voice that made steel look soft, and Butch nodded.

As Butch was helping Wally up, the BB gun trained on them both, McKenna said "hey Paul hang back a sec, you two can go" and Wally and Butch limped away, Paul looked like he was about to wet himself and his hands were shaking even as Amata lowered the BB gun. McKenna moved slowly over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, "listen Paul, I like you, you're a good kid, your just a little misguided" as she spoke McKenna softened, "

But Amata and I really think you need to stop hanging out with those guys, they're trouble and they're only going to drag you down". "We're just trying to look out for you, think about it" said Amata as she strolled over with the BB gun slung across her chest. "I don't know, they don't really pick on me as much when I'm hanging out with them" said Paul, who looked less nervous now and his hands had stopped shaking, "please, for me, just think about it" as she said this, McKenna looked him straight in the eyes.

"Ok, Ok I'll think about it, just give me some time to think about it" he said, "Good that's all we ask" said Amata, "by the way, if you do decide to get out of that whole wannabe gang Butch is trying to set up, come to us first so that we can make sure that nothing bad happens to you" said McKenna. "Ok" he said, "you can go now" said Amata. After he had left the two girls collapsed on the couch, McKenna had her head on Amata's lap as Amata ran her fingers through McKenna's long brunette hair. "You think he'll go for it" said Amata, "I hope so, this whole tunnel snake thing could become an issue and if we can't stop it we need to be ready for it, plus he really is a good kid and I would hate to have to hurt him".


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay guys this is the first time that I added in a comment but this is a turning point in the story. First of all to answer the reviews:**

**To my first reviewer, thanks that means a lot to me, and I hope you stick with me.**

**To my second reviewer, I'm sorry to say but soon McKenna will be making her mark in the wasteland.**

**Ok guys if you want to see anything, anything at all, drop me a review, pm me, whatever. I can't promise I'll give you a chapter but I'll run with it as far as I can.**

McKenna was sitting in the group's hideout, reading a book on guerrilla warfare. It had been four years since she had shown Butch that she and her friends were not to be messed with and they were now 16. Paul had decided to take their advice and started hanging out with Amata and herself. As it turned out, the kid had a knack for building things and was skilled with explosives. "What's taking so long, those two should have been here by now" she thought aloud. Finally, she decided to go find them.

As she got to the clinic she found Amata organizing the needles. She snuck up behind her and in one smooth movement spun her around and planted her lips on Amata's and slid her tongue in between the other girl's teeth. Amata quickly followed suit and quickly dominated McKenna's tongue with her own, then she bit down on McKenna's lower lip. Immediately McKenna pulled back and said "ok, what's wrong, you only bite me when you're mad"? "What, nothings wrong" said Amata, at that McKenna just looked at her and crossed her arms.

"Fine, it's my dad, he keeps insisting that he be in the room for my check-ups" "that again, what does he think that your going to do, we don't have any recreational drugs, all the booze is locked up, and we still haven't gone, you know, that far" replied McKenna. "Yeah, but I think He might know" Amata said as she shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably, "about us" Amata nodded "how would he know" "I don't know". "Girls what are you doing here, your going to miss your G.O.A.T, get going." said James as he walked into the clinic. "We're going but one quick question dad, did you tell the overseer about, you know, Amata and I" said McKenna, "what no, I promised to keep that to myself and so did Jonas" he said.

"Ok, let's get going then McKenna; we'll have to figure this out later". The two girls left the clinic passing Stanley as he went to get his prescription refilled. As the girls approached the class room they saw Butch, Wally, and Freddy Gomez, who had replaced Paul, had surrounded Paul. Paul spotted them and told the three "guys you really should get going if you know what's good for you", "oh and why would we do that, not like your girlfriends are here to save you" said Butch.

McKenna and Amata shared a look and McKenna gave an almost invisible dip of the chin. Amata took two steps forward, tapped butch on the shoulder, and when he turned around she popped him in the nose and sent him sprawling to the ground. "Now what was it you were saying Butch" said McKenna. "Come on boys, lets leave this loser with his lesbo friends" said butch as his gang helped him up. As he said that twin looks of astonishment, and then rage crossed the two female's faces. Paul looked at them and said "ok you guys look a lot madder at butch than usual", "well, now we know who told your dad" said McKenna, "he did what, we can't have him telling the overseer what we do" said the dark skinned boy. Amata turned to her girlfriend with a determined look in her eyes, "we're going to teach him a lesson right"? "Oh yeah, just let me get a plan going". At that the three walked into the class room.

"Okay people time for the notorious G.O.A.T." said their teacher, Mr. Brotch. The test was fairly straightforward aptitude test and she and Amata had finished pretty quickly, they had both scored jobs in the clinic, it took Paul a little while longer to finish his test so they hung around and people watched for a while. They laughed when Butch was declared a hair dresser. "Hey Butch don't look so mad, I bet you'll be FABULOUS" jeered McKenna as Butch stalked out of the room. She saw Christine Kendall looking angrily at something written on the board, she moved closer too see what was and saw why Christine looked so angry.

"Christine Kendall puts out; I can't believe this, first Mr. Brotch puts me in the wrong department and now this." The girl turned to look at McKenna "oh, hey what's up". McKenna smiled as a plan came together in her head "want to get back at Butch for all his crap" "oh I don't know, I really-" "I'll talk to Mr. Brotch about getting you a position in the home economics department" McKenna interjected. "Deal" said Christine, McKenna smirked and walked over to Mr. Brotch. "Listen Mr. Brotch I need a favor, I need you too switch Christine into the home economics department" Mr. Brotch looked at her and gave an exasperated sigh "not you to, why would you care about that" "I cut a deal with Christine to get at Butch" at that Brotch looked at her quizzically "Butch does a lot of bad things, he must have done something completely horrible".

"He did" she said as her eyes narrowed, "you were always my best student and you and your dad have done me more than a few favors over the years, so what the heck, I'll do it" Brotch pulled out a cigarette and lit it "thanks Mr. Brotch I owe you". McKenna had her smirk back as she walked out of the classroom with her friends trailing behind her; she loved it when a plan came together.

…..

"Ok, first we're going to have Christine come on to Butch". McKenna was in the hideout with Amata, Paul, and Christine explaining her plan. "While she does that I'll sneak up on him and inject him with a fast acting sedative, after that we have about fifteen minutes to get him to the abandoned section, Paul has everything set up down there so once he's down there he is ours". and as an after thought she added "any questions"? "No, good lets go take him down".

…..

Butch was walking back to his room "I am not a hair dresser, I am a barber" he screamed. "Hey big boy want to cut my hair" he turned in the direction of the voice and saw Christine Kendall walking toward him pulling the zipper slowly down her vault suit. Oh gag me with a stick thought McKenna as she snuck up behind Butch. His collar was still blocking the neck, she silently signaled for Christine and the black haired girl wrapped her arms around him and continued with meaningless dirty talk, it made McKenna want to throw up she and Amata were never this way were they? Christine gently unzipped Butch's jacket and under the guise of moving in to take his suit off she pulled his collar down.

In that moment McKenna struck like lightning, shoving the needle into the jugular vein on the side of his neck. Butch immediately felt the tranquilizer and within seconds he was lying on the floor with his bladder emptying itself into his vault suit pants and then blackness. "Do they all do that" said Christine. "No, but they do when you add in a diuretic" said McKenna as she and Christine picked him up and dragged him down to the apartment in the abandoned area of the vault. When Amata saw Butch she immediately started laughing her head off, "I see the diuretic worked" she said in between giggles.

As they tied him to the bed, and proceeded to take pictures of him in his soiled vault suit, they spread empty med-x syringes around the room. They injected him with some of the drug and then they took a blood test. McKenna put the blood into a computer and downloaded the results onto a holotape as Paul undid the restraints and Amata took pictures of him with a few empty needles spread him and a few in his arms. After that they redid the straps and sat down to await his awakening. "I would really hate to mess with you guys" said Christine who was leaning against the wall. "What, where am I, what's going on here"?

"We know what you did Butch" said Amata, "let me out of these things", "you told the overseer about us you rat, that's why he never touches you" said McKenna. "Why are these things in my arms", "let me explain, you are going to stop telling the overseer what we doo, you are going to stop harassing us and your going to stop harassing Christine" said Amata as she and her girlfriend moved to each side of the bed. "Yeah and why would I do that, you guys are freaks, your just two dykes, a gay, and now a slut, OWWW" he screamed as McKenna drove an empty syringe into his groin.

"You will not insult us, if you even give one of us a funny look, these pictures and these drug test results will show up on everyone's terminal and everyone will think you're a drug addict, get it" said McKenna, "got it" "good" said Amata, she then grabbed McKenna by her collar, and pulled her in to a deep and passionate kiss. Butch was dumbstruck for a moment as he watched the two beautiful girls embrace before screaming "let me out of here", catching the girls attention. "Let yourself out you son of a bitch by the way I'm straight you ass hole" said Paul as he and Christine walked through the door

"Go on, I'll be right there" McKenna told her mate as she walked out. "Come on you guys can't leave me like this" pleaded Butch as he struggled against the restraints. McKenna looked at him and said "we can do whatever the hell we want". "Please, you and your crew aren't untouchable, I'll get you for this" Butch was practically going into hysterics now. As she walked out McKenna turned, looked him dead in the eyes, and gave him a smile that made his blood freeze. "Fuck that, the worlds ours" and with that she turned and strutted out the door.


	4. Chapter 4

"WAKE UP, OH MY GOD, WAKE UP" screamed a feminine voice above her as McKenna was grabbed and hauled out of bed by her arm. Amata rolled out after her and they ended up a tangle of sheets and bodies as Christine was knocked down on top of them.

"What the hell, I thought I told you if it's locked then knock first" said McKenna said, looking quite annoyed at the 19 year old Asian girl scrambling to get up. A year ago when McKenna had turned 18 she had gotten her own quarters in the vault and over the next year Amata had moved in with her to escape her father. McKenna scanned the room and saw Paul with his head turned in the other direction and his left hand covering his eyes. For a moment McKenna looked at him quizzically before Amata suddenly said

"Umm Kenna, we should put some clothes on we're kind of….. naked" and McKenna immediately looked down and saw that her girlfriend was right, she felt a cool breeze from the vent go over her breasts and remembered everything that happened the night before between Amata and herself.

"Come on, get dressed, we have to leave now" said Paul whose embarrassment was replaced by fear.

Amata reacted first as McKenna was still trying to come to terms with the fact that she had lost her virginity last night, "OK, slow down, what's going on".

"McKenna's dad is gone, the overseer is looking for you, and they killed Jonas" Christine was going into hysterics and looked like she was close to collapsing in tears.

"What, where would he go, the only place to go is- oh crap, outside the vault" said McKenna as she and Amata were rushing to get the flak jackets that they had stolen from vault security on.

"Here, put these on" Amata shoved two more of the vests onto her friend's hands, one for Christine and one for Paul.

"Well, what are our options" Paul was helping Christine into her vest as McKenna grabbed her base ball bat and Amata went to grab the 10mm pistols they kept in a hollow behind a hanging picture of the four after graduation.

"Ok, option one, we go to the overseer and explain that we had nothing to do with my father leaving" McKenna said as she tucked the baseball bat under a strap on the back of her vest,

"No, my dad would never let someone leave, at least not without punishing someone" Amata was sliding ammo clips into the special slots of her jacket.

"Well then there is only one other option" McKenna slipped a single strap backpack over her shoulders and stuffing some clips as well as some food and bottled water into the bag. At that suddenly she felt every eye in the room boring holes in her, everyone knowing what she was about to say, but nobody wanted to admit it.

"We have to leave the vault" it was Paul who finally said it and to his surprise he heard conviction in his voice. He looked at McKenna and Amata; in their eyes he found nothing but grim determination.

Christine burst out "I have to make sure my sister is okay".

McKenna looked at her while she laced up her combat boots "okay, meet us in my dad's old clinic".

When Christine was out of the room Amata turned to them with a face scrunched up in indecision. McKenna instantly knew what she was thinking,

"If we can avoid it, we won't kill anyone". At that the others looked relieved.

Amata spoke up "listen, there is a secret passage linking my father's office to the vault entrance and I guess our exit".

"Well, we have our target then, alright people lets move"

…

The trio charged out of the room and were immediately met by Officer Kendall, he charged toward them and McKenna grabbed him by the arm, proceeding to hip throw him. He landed on his back with an "oomph" and Amata kicked his head like a soccer ball.

They proceeded to run through the corridor until Butch came screaming down the hall. "PLEASE HELP, YOU HAVE TO HELP ME"

Butch grabbed McKenna's shoulders and she responded by driving her knee into his stomach.

"Please you have to help, my mom is being attacked by rad roaches" Butch was nearly in tears and was giving them all puppy dog eyes. "

Fine, we'll help" said Amata with a roll of her eyes.

The group rushed into his apartment and Paul pulled his pistol out of its hip holster, went into V.A.T.S. and took them all out in seconds.

The three didn't say a word; they just ran out before Butch could mutter a thank you. They continued past the cafeteria, toward the clinic. Once there they found Officer Gomez as well as Andy and Stanley fighting off rad roaches. When Gomez turned toward them they tensed and McKenna began to slide her baseball bat out from under the strap of her flak jacket.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy there the others may be after you, but you and your dad always did right by me" McKenna let the bat slide back behind the strap and her compatriots took their hands off of their pistols.

"Where is Christine" McKenna was stepping over the toasted corpses of rad roaches.

"Kendall? Her dad found her going to her apartment and turned her in, the Overseer and Officer Mack are holding her in the security office, trying to get her to spill her guts about you three"

McKenna's brow furrowed at that for a moment before she said "okay Paul can you make a flash bang out of what we have in the clinic".

Paul smirked "I can make a bomb out of soap, string, and paperclips, the clinic is like a toy box for me" at that he went into the clinic and the banging of metal and glass.

Six minutes later, he emerged holding what looked to be three beakers plugged with corks, connected by wires, and wrapped in duct tape.

The three moved towards the atrium and found Tom and Mary Holden pinned down by Officer O'Brian and Officer Richards.

"Please we just want to leave, we promise we won't come back" screamed Tom,

"The overseer says your born in the vault you die in the vault, you want to leave the vault, only one way to go" screamed O'Brian before descending into a maniacal cackle.

Paul threw his first flash bang and when the men stopped firing to clutch their eyes Amata moved behind Richards and drove her elbow down on the back of Officer Richards head. While McKenna drove her elbow into O'Brian's stomach before moving into an upper cut and driving his face into her knee.

"If that's how it is outside' I don't want to be anywhere near there" Mary Holden screamed as she fled down the hall. "Wait Mary, please wait" Tom yelled down the hall as he chased after Mary.

The three moved up the stairwell, killing rad roaches along the way. As they ran past a window they heard Allen Mack yelling obscenities at them. They arrived in the systems control room to find security chief Hannon waiting for them.

"What are you doing son, you can't possibly want to leave the vault" Paul's father looked at his son with pleading eyes.

"I'm sorry dad, but this is something that I have to do" Paul stood firm.

"Please son, I shouldn't tell you this, but you have to know, your mother didn't die, she left the vault, please son, I already lost the love of my life to that hell, don't make me lose my son to" the man begged.

Paul was shocked "what, that can't have happened; everyone always told me she died giving birth".

"I'm afraid it is son, the overseer and I are the only people who know the truth, I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner son, when your mother left she said those same words to me, I'm sorry but I have to do this".

Paul looked at his father with eyes filled with a deep and profound sadness and there was silence for what felt like an eternity.

Finally chief Hannon spoke "if you're sure that this is something you have to do, then I won't get in your way"

Tears filled the man's eyes as he said one last thing to his son "I love you son and if you find your mother tell her I love her to and that I'm sorry".

The two men hugged and Paul ran off quickly followed by Amata. When McKenna moved to join them chief Hannon placed a hand on her shoulder

"Take care of my boy"

McKenna nodded at him and left the man to his tears. She caught up to her friends and they continued to the security office. They snuck under the window, from which they could see the overseer and Officer Mack interrogating Christine. Their means of interrogation being savagely beating the poor girl. The three stacked up on the door, Amata on the right, Paul on the left, and McKenna taking point.

Amata slammed the button that opened the door; Paul tossed in a flash bang, and McKenna charged in pistol drawn. She was immediately followed by her companions, Paul tackled Mack to the ground and pinned him. McKenna Immediately set to work undoing the cuffs on Christine and Amata leveled her pistol with her fathers head.

"How dare you point a gun at your own-" BANG, "one more word and I end you, you hurt my friend, you are not my father, not anymore" Amata gave him a look of nothing but pure hatred. Paul used the cuffs that Mack had used on Christine to handcuff him to a pipe in the holding cell.

Christine was bruised but otherwise okay "thanks guys, I don't know what would have happened to me if you hadn't intervened"

McKenna gave her a friendly smile and said "hey what are friends for, now come on lets blow this joint".

Christine looked apprehensive"yeah, about that, this whole situation needs to be fixed and I'm going to do my best to fix it"

McKenna nodded understandingly and handed her a pistol "take this, just in case"

Christine nodded before turning and running down the hall.

Paul grabbed the office key off of the desk and the three ran for the office, leaving the overseer to bleed from his knee. When the door opened they found Jonas' corpse, the girls looked away knowing that they would have to mourn their friend later. On his corpse they found a holotape labeled "for McKenna". McKenna pocketed it, one again knowing there was not time. They moved in to the office and opened the tunnel, quickly rushing through it.

They arrived at the vault's entrance and McKenna quickly pulled the lever on the control panel, opening the door. For a moment the three were awestruck, there stood an open gateway to freedom.

Until they heard vault security coming and Amata yelled "come on" and bounded for the entrance, quickly followed by Paul. McKenna was the last one out and when she got outside, she slammed her fist down on the large red button on the outside control console.

As the door creaked closed, vault security filled the room she had just come out of. As she stood there in that cave that went on outside the door she yelled at the security

"McKenna Casey, remember the name".

**And that is chapter 4 ladies and gentlemen, BTW like I said before, review, I love hearing from my readers**

**No flames**

**Happy Holidays**

**Enjoy.**


	5. Chapter 5

"Well that got really interesting, really fast, you ok Mata" said McKenna as she jogged up to her friends. They were standing in front of a ramshackle wooden door, the spaces between the boards letting in the only light in the cave.

"Yeah I'm fine, I don't know what happened to my father but that was not him" Amata slumped into a sitting position against the wall.

She looked up at her girlfriend; at 5 ft 4 inches McKenna was small for her age and always had been. Add in her B cup and the fact that she only weighed 110 pounds and she could pass for a fifteen year old, a fact that Amata had always found cute but McKenna had pure hatred for. She had dark brunette hair hanging down to her shoulders and piercing blue eyes the color of a tropical sea.

McKenna followed suit and collapsed against the cave wall and finally Paul dropped as well. For a long time they just sat there staring at each other, McKenna watched as her girlfriend slowly slipped off her vest. Once it was off you could see her toned abs, McKenna had a nice flat stomach but had never managed to get much farther than that. In her eyes Amata had always looked better than herself, At 140 pounds, 6ft 2inches, with light brown hair pulled into a pony tail, a C cup, and those knockout amber eyes of hers. In McKenna's eyes Amata was drop dead gorgeous in a natural kind of way.

Finally, it was Paul who broke the silence, "I can't believe that my mom left the vault, everyone told me she was dead, they told all of the kids she was dead".

His tears glistened against his dark chocolate skin in the rays of moonlight poring in the door. McKenna scooted over to his side and wrapped her arms around his chiseled upper body.

Weighing in at 170 pounds and 6 ft 5 inches, Paul was all muscle and with his recent decision to put his hair into a buzz cut, he looked like one of those marines in the movies McKenna used to watch with Amata. He was like a brother to McKenna and it hurt her to see tears rolling out of those emerald eyes.

"Hey McKenna what was on that holotape Jonas had on him" Amata finally broke out of the trance she had been in for the last few minutes.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that" she let go of Paul and retrieved the tape from one of her vests pockets and placed it into the side of her pip boy, she pressed the play button and the screen projected a miniature version of her father onto the cave floor.

The hologram began to speak.

"_Hold on Jonas, I need to record this first._

_I... I don't really know how to tell you this. I hope you'll understand, but I know you might be angry. I thought about it for a long time, but in the end I decided it was best for you not to know. So many things could have gone wrong and there's really no telling how the overseer will react when he finds out. It's best if he can blame everything on me. Obviously you already know that I'm gone. It was something I needed to do. You're an adult now. You're ready to be on your own. Maybe someday things will change and we can see each other again. I can't tell you why I left or where I'm going. I don't want you to follow me. God knows life in the vault isn't perfect, but at least you'll be safe. Just knowing that will be enough to keep me going_."

Jonas' voice came outside of the hologram's zone of view.

"_Don't mean to rush you, Doc, but I'd feel better if we got this over with_."

Her father's hologram spoke one last line before the tape ended.

"_Okay. Go ahead. Goodbye. I love you_."

With that the hologram flickered and died

McKenna just sat there in complete silence, until finally the dam burst. "You bastard, how could you abandon me like that" she descended into wracking sobs.

Amata moved closer and hugged the smaller girl tight against her frame, but didn't say a thing. She knew that there were no words to soften the kind of pain McKenna was feeling, so she just gripped her girlfriend tighter and let her cry.

All three knew that they were marked by the events of that day for the rest of their lives. They also knew that there was no going back to the lives they had held before. But then and there they had other things to worry about.

Slowly, one by one, they all drifted off to sleep. First came McKenna, when she finally ran out of tears she fell asleep in Amata's arms. She was soon followed by Amata, who lay her head gently laid her head against McKenna's and dropped into a dreamless sleep.

Paul was the last one left awake; his mind was a hurricane at that moment. He could not stop thinking about what his father had said; if his mother was out there then he had to find her, if only just to find out why she had left. He looked at the two sleeping girls cuddled up together on the opposite wall. He knew he would follow these girls through all nine circles of Hell and out through purgatory. On that thought he fell into the black void of sleep.

….

McKenna was the first one awake; she looked around the cave and remembered the events of last night. She saw Paul was passed out against the opposite wall and she could feel from Amata's breathing that she was still asleep. She saw no point in waking them for the moment, so she returned her head to the comfortable pillow that was Amata's breast.

A few minutes later she heard the sound of voices nearby. She nudged Amata with her shoulder.

"Huh, what, where, oh right" Amata rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. The girls untangled themselves, and woke up Paul. Amata slipped her flak jacket back on and they all moved towards the door.

"Well lets get out of here" and with that the trio walked out into the cruel and unflinching wasteland.

They were all immediately blinded by seeing the sun for the first time in their lives. The group made their way down the hill into the charred ruins of a small town.

"According to my pip boy this is what is left of a small town called Springvale" McKenna was fiddling with the map setting of her pip boy's map feature.

"Doesn't look like much to me" Amata said as she and Paul checked out what looked like an oversized rocket near a gas station.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here" the group turned toward the voice. "Looks like some vault trash that lost their way" behind them stood three men wearing an odd mix of metal and leather.

Even from where they stood McKenna and Amata, with their medical backgrounds could tell these were drug addicts. They had tract marks all over their bodies and they had clearly been replacing their meals with drugs as their ribcages were clearly visible.

They also held several firearms albeit in extremely poor condition. "Now its time to die" screamed one of them.

"Now hold on guys we can work this out" even as the raiders were raising their weapons, McKenna was trying to resolve the situation peacefully.

BANG BANG BANG, within a matter of seconds all three raider's heads were nothing but stains on the road.

The three shocked 19 year olds turned in the direction of the shots and standing on a rock outcropping to east, was the figure of a large man in a duster, silhouetted against the sun, holding a huge sniper rifle.

**And that's that folks, to all those who reviewed thank you I'm glad your enjoying it.**

**Once again R&R, you guys know I love to hear from you.**

**Oh yeah and anyone who can guess who the guy with the sniper rifle is gets a virtual cookie.**

**This does not in clued you River Nightrunner, since I already told you.**

**Next chapter up soon. **


	6. Chapter 6

McKenna stared in awe as the man slung the sniper rifle to his back and began to make his way down to them.

"He just killed them, just like that" Amata spoke so softly that she could barely be heard, Paul was staring at the bodies in shock, but McKenna's eyes never left the man coming down the slope of the hill. He was tall, muscular, and had light chocolate colored skin. Even from where she stood she could see the man's muscles rippling as he moved. He walked with the grace and poise of a dancer, but also with the dignity and determination of a general.

As he drew closer, she became entranced by his eyes. They gleamed with a cold intelligence, but she could also see that in them a deep sadness. His dreadlocks looked like a black crown.

He looked, for all the world, like an angel of death.

"You bear the marks of having walked many roads, but you seem to be just beginning on your true path". His voice was truly hypnotic and all three were completely captivated by it.

"These men were trying to kill you, tell me why you did not kill them first" it wasn't a question, it was an order.

McKenna felt compelled to answer "Because they're people, you can't just kill them".

The man considered this and for the first time McKenna noticed he was carrying several weapons other than the sniper rifle. Under his duster he carried, what McKenna recognized from old pre-war movies as, a 12.7mm submachine gun. She could also see six frag grenades and a flash bang hanging from his belt. He also carried a staff with what looked like a golden eagle perched on top.

Finally the man spoke "come, you must learn the lessons of the waste if you are to survive on your road". The man pushed past Paul and began walking down the road.

"Should we follow him" Paul questioned McKenna.

"I am" was McKenna's only response before turning and running after the man

Amata turned to Paul said "hey, what's life without a little risk" and jogged off.

"A very good one" and with a sigh he ran after the girls.

…...

"Your first lesson, the wastes are harsh and unforgiving, you can trust no one but yourselves and sometimes, even that, you can't trust" they had been following the man for half an hour and were now standing on a hill near where they had met the raiders. The top of the hill was wide and open except for the caved in ruins of a house.

Suddenly the man stopped. He took his submachine gun out and set it on the ground, followed by his sniper rifle, and finally his grenades. When he was finished he was only armed with his staff.

"HAAH" all of the sudden the man swung his staff right at McKenna's head. She was barely able to jump back in time; he then turned and struck Paul in the stomach with the butt of the staff, sending Paul reeling back.

"What the heck are you doing" screamed Amata as she threw a punch at his jaw. He easily deflected the punch with his forearm before dropping low and sweeping her feet out from under her with the eagle end of the staff.

McKenna sent a kick to his stomach, but he caught it with his staff and sent her toppling backwards, but she managed to recover quickly with a forward hand spring and landed on her feet. Paul had recovered and now made a move to try and take the staff, but the man grabbed his hand and sent him to the ground with a hip throw.

McKenna could see this was going nowhere; the man was obviously a much better fighter than they were. Since she was small for her age she had always had to fight smart, so she knew how to take on tougher opponents. Amata had just started to use V.A.T.S., but this man seemed super-human, even at that speed he was still able to block every strike. McKenna turned her attention away from the fight and surveyed the battleground.

Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. She sprinted towards the center of the hill. Paul saw this and sent a series of punches at their attacker to distract their attacker.

"Stand down" she was standing next to where he had dropped his weapons with her pistol drawn and aimed at the man's head. He reacted faster than she had anticipated and before she could react he had moved forward, knocked the gun out of her hand, spun her around, and pressed her against his torso while strangling her with his staff. She could feel his abs against her back.

"Damn, if I weren't gay this would be awesome" McKenna thought as she pulled out the surprise she had picked up.

"Let me go and stand down or we both get blown, and not in the good way" she held the grenade against her chest where he could see it; with a twitch of her finger she could pull the pin. The man released her and looked at each of them, as if contemplating whether or not to kill them.

"An interesting, but effective way to solve the problem, though it did rely on the other person having a sense of self preservation, you have learned your first lesson" the man picked up his equipment, except for the grenade that McKenna had now given to Paul, then once again began walking, this time down the hill, once again they followed.

"What the hell was that about, you nearly killed us, you nearly strangled McKenna" Amata fumed. She looked like she still might try and kill him, so McKenna put a hand on her girlfriends shoulder and gave her a look telling her that she was ok.

"You were beginning to trust me, you have learned your first lesson of the wastes, trust is hard to come by and should not be given freely" they had reached the bottom of the hill and were nearing where they had killed the raiders.

"Now for your next lesson, your own survival is the most important thing. Often others will attempt to take your possessions, your dignity, your freedom, and even your life. You must be willing to take their lives first" then the man stopped and once again disarmed. They were standing mere feet from the bodies of the three raiders.

"What are you doing" Paul said, after the last time he had done this he and the others were weary of him.

"There are four more raiders on their way here to find their allies" he jerked his head in the direction of the road leading to a large building that looked similar to a school. He sat down cross legged and set his staff across his lap.

"What? What should we do?" Paul turned his gaze over to McKenna with a worried look on his face.

"The same thing we did in the vault Pauly, only this time, we shoot to kill" McKenna picked up the 12.7mm submachine gun.

"We're out here and, like it or not, we have to adapt to the way of life out here" Amata picked up the anti-material rifle, popped the magazine out, checked the ammo, put it back in, and pulled bolt back to cock the weapon.

"Amata get into that house and set up a sniper perch on the top floor. Paul grab those grenades and get to cover over in those ruins, when I give the signal hit them with the flash bang. I'll hide behind the car and pepper them with this sub-gun". Paul picked up the grenades and moved to the solitary ruin on the right side of the road, where he took cover behind a partially intact wall.

Amata moved into the house on the left side that still had its second story wall intact. She moved up a convenient pile of rubble and braced her rifle against a windowsill.

McKenna looked to where the man had been a minute ago to find he had vanished, without the time to worry about that she moved behind the blue car in front of what was once a house. She checked her weapon and saw that the others were in position.

"I hope to god this works" she muttered, all there was to do was wait.

…...

"Ut ta ell, theres jimbo and slicer and dicer, who ta ell did thas" Cutter had been a raider all of his life and had earned his name because he loved to cut things, mole rats, Brahmin, ghouls, and people, especially people. He particularly liked cutting people who talked bad about the way he talked. He was the one who talked right and thems were the ones who talked wrong, weren't they?

Currently he was leading his boys, when suddenly there was a huge flash of light and a boom. He couldn't see and all he could hear was an excruciating. He couldn't even hear his own scream as a dozen 12.7mm bullets tore through his lungs, heart, and stomach.

His vision returned as he fell to the ground, and as he bled to death he could see Stumps, his third in command take a 50mg bullet to the head, he could barely feel it as bits of Stumps' head fell on his face. His other two guys ran up beside him and started shooting at everything. He felt something land on his chest and turned his head just in time to see a face peek out. Its owner, he could now see, was a petite, young girl with long, flowing, brown hair in a blue jump suit.

"A kid, a fucking kid" he laughed, or at least he thought he did. Those were his last words, what he had felt land on his chest was a hand grenade; it went off seconds after he uttered those words.

…...

"Well that went well, as well as could be expected" McKenna stood up and watched as Amata and Paul picked their way out of the rubble.

"Very nice, you struck them down with extreme prejudice, your lesson has been learned" the man had suddenly reappeared right where he had been sitting, but this time McKenna saw he wore a strange and slightly bulky object on his wrist. It was circular with three grey protrusions on the front and one on the back, two out of the three front protrusions had wires attached to what looked like a small curved mirror on top.

"Take this, it should be enough to get you started on your path, and keep the weapons" the man removed his pack and set it down before them.

"We can't take all of this, we don't even know your name" McKenna began, but the man had already begun walking away with only his staff.

"Go to the city of bones, and my name is Ulysses" Ulysses said and then he touched the item on his wrist and he vanished.

**So what'd you guys think, that one was a long one. I know that Ulysses and most of those weapons aren't in FO3 but one I love Ulysses and two it is my story, if you don't like it then go ahead, try and find me MWAHAHAHA.**

**Also, before anyone says anything, those paragraphs where the grammar sucks were meant to be like that, I figured that plenty of raiders have little to know education, so they probably don't know the finer points of the English language. **

**Oh yeah I have been forgetting to put these.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fallout.**

**Ok you guys know the drill, R&R**

**To Hawkeye15997, thank you but please remember this isn't a story about a female Captain America, give it some time and you'll see she is still human.**

**To eaglescorch, thanks and good guess, I thought about Simms but I decided that I just wanted to get Ulysses one good scene and I wanted to go off the beaten path a little with this story.**

**Adios people**


	7. Chapter 7

**I do not own Fallout.**

"So what are we going to do now" Paul was following the girls as they walked up a road leading to a rust colored dome structure that McKenna had noticed earlier. The man, who had identified himself as Ulysses, seemed to have vanished off of the face of the earth. Despite their best efforts they had been unable to find a trace of him.

"We do what the guy who just gave us powerful weapons, ammunition, and medicine for free told us to. We go to the city of bones, however creepy that may sound." McKenna had searched the one-strap backpack that he had left; in it she had found 500 12.7mm rounds for her new submachine gun, 150 50mg rounds for Amata's new sniper rifle, and 4 more frag grenades, and 6 more flash bangs. There were also two more of those odd wrist devices, six shots of med-x, and two stimpacks.

"Am I the only one who thinks we should probably be worried by the fact that a guy killed three people right in front of us, tried to kill us, had us kill four guys, and then just gave us a bunch of guns and ammo before disappearing" Paul had always been the one who worried about consequences.

"Yep, dude, you do not look a well armed gift horse in the mouth. Mainly because they might shoot you if you do" Amata was examining her new sniper rifle. They reached the top of the hill and saw the dome was actually a wall.

"Oh, I get it now, see those pieces there, they're airplane parts, before the war they called the places they dumped old airplanes bone yards, hence city of bones" McKenna pointed out the wings and turbine that made up the gate. They strolled past the robot cowboy under the watchful gaze of the sniper perched above the gate.

"Well howdy folks, welcome to Megaton, Name's Lucas Simms, Town sheriff and mayor too when the need arises." A man wearing duster and a cowboy hat walked up to them. The whole town seemed to be built in a crater, presumably left by what looked like a nuclear bomb in the town's center.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you, I'm McKenna, this is Amata, and that's Paul" McKenna liked this guy; he seemed like a good friend to have.

"Pleased to meet you" Amata didn't trust this guy; she was a firm believer in instinctive intelligence and her instincts were screaming at her that this guy would gladly kill them each without a second thought to protect his town. She could respect that.

"Hi" Paul was a little bit afraid of this man, maybe it was the large gun he had or maybe it was the fact that Paul was sure that this Simms guy could have many other individuals with equally large guns to back him up at any time.

"I don't know why but I like you three, something tells me you're alright. If you need anything just give me a holler" the man tipped his hat to the two females and extended his hand to Paul.

"Thank you sheriff, nice town you have here." Simms had a strong grip Paul noticed, such a strong grip that it was painful. He wondered if that was the purpose.

"Friendly and well mannered? I think we're going to get along just fine. You treat my people nice and you're welcome to stay as long as you like." Simms tapped the strap of his weapon as he said it; it was as much a warning as it was a welcome.

"Right, message received" McKenna responded with a tone that said that they were just as tough as he was.

"I'm glad we understand each other, now is there anything that I can do for you" Simms was a little impressed at the girl's moxie.

"We're looking for my father, middle aged guy, maybe you have seen him" McKenna really hoped he had, the last thing she felt like doing was running around the wasteland with no idea where she was going. She wanted to save that for later.

"Nope, sorry. I've got enough fires to put out in this pace that I don't have time to keep tabs on every visitor. I'd ask around town"

"So two questions, one where can we get supplies and two is that bomb still active" McKenna had started worrying about it the moment she saw it, if that thing was still active then these people and her group could be very very dead, very very quick.

"Yeah I been meaning to get that thing looked at but I don't trust any of the locals to tinker with it." Simms looked uncomfortable like he was talking about an STD to a doctor, you know that you have to talk about it but you sure don't enjoy it.

"We could handle that for you" McKenna suggested, the man looked even more apprehensive at that idea.

"Well, that's nice of you to offer and no offence intended, but you look like you can't be much older than 15 or 16" McKenna grimaced at this, she hated how small she was. It usually turned into a royal pain in her ass.

"Actually, I'm 19, and my friend here is actually an explosives expert" McKenna gestured to Paul. Simms seemed to be taken aback by the fact that she was 19.

"Well my apologies ma'am, I would compensate you for the trouble if you took a look at the bomb. If you need supplies check with Moira over at Crater-side supply." They nodded and he walked away. They proceeded around the crater to a large building with the front half of an airplane on top and supply spelled out in large letters attached to the plane.

The three strolled through the door of the shop and found a slight woman with red-brown hair pulled into a pony tail, sweeping up the store and a well built man in leather armor.

"Well hello there, you must be more strays from the vault, I'm Moira brown, and what can I do for you." The woman was more cheerful than Susie Mack after she had managed to get her vibrator working again, Amata thought.

"Hi, I'm McKenna, that's Amata, and that's Paul." McKenna could tell a fellow intellectual when she saw one and she figured that this cheerful woman and herself were going to become fast friends.

"Listen, Moira, Lucas Simms asked us to have a look at the bomb, we were wondering if you had any tools we could borrow" Paul wanted to get straight down to business, this chick was weird.

"Oh of course, are you guys going to do anything with it, because I have some great ideas for nuclear shaped charges" Moira's eyes and McKenna's eyes seemed to light up immediately at the mention of nuclear shaped charges.

"Oh but wouldn't the plutonium required for that be that of four originals" Amata could almost hear the gears turning as McKenna spoke. From that sentence the conversation descended into technical babble.

"Are you getting any of this" Amata leaned over and whispered into Paul's ear.

"I'm good with explosives, but I leave the inventions and theoretical work to her" Paul whispered back Moira shoved a bag of tools into Paul's hands without even looking at him; she was so deep into conversation with McKenna.

"Just go have a look at the bomb; I'll keep an eye on these two, trust me when she gets like this there is no getting her out of it, best to just let it run its course" Paul nodded and walked out as Amata took a place leaning against the wall, the mercenary gave her a nod and she reciprocated. They had both been through this many times before.

….

Paul slung the satchel of tools around his shoulder and made his way down the walkways leading to the crater. He passed a building in which he could hear the pounding and clanking of machinery. He turned to look at it for a second and heard a voice behind him.

"Well, you must be one of those vault dwellers, what's your name boy" an old black man was leaning against the railing smoking a cigarette.

"Names Paul" the man raised the pack in offering, "no thanks, the girls would kill me if they found out I even touched a cigarette, price you pay for being friends with two doctors, women, they run our lives eh?"

The man laughed "yeah, I remember my spitfire was the same way about liquor, she would have tanned my hide if I ever touched a drop, hell, even now she would probably come back down from heaven to beat my ass if I ever touched any booze. So what are you up to then with those tools?"

Paul leaned up against the railing next to the man "Simms is having us take a look at the bomb, I'm an explosives expert and engineer, you didn't say your name by the way."

"Walter, if you decide to stick around for a while then I could always use a hand in keeping this town running" Paul nodded.

"I'll keep that in mind, hope to see you around" the man gave a nod and a wave of his hand as a goodbye. Paul continued down the walkways and then down into the crater. Paul knelt down in the water surrounding the bomb. The second he stepped into the water his Geiger counter started going off.

Good, that means it is plutonium, those are more volatile but the detonators are simpler than uranium, Paul thought. Paul withdrew a power drill out of the bag and began unscrewing a panel on the bomb. The inside of the panel read C-23 megaton, good these were the earlier models developed with large amounts of plutonium in them, but without any trap detonators to prevent disarmament. From the look of the core and detonation device this bomb was inert but highly active. All he had to do to disarm it was to pull a few wires and the plutonium would be okay, so McKenna and her new playmate would be happy.

The thing with these was that since they made the payload so large all that they had room for was a small relatively simple detonation rig. He decided to go back to the store and inform McKenna of this.

When he got back into the store, he found that it was empty other than the mercenary.

"They went to Moriarty's, the bar down on the upper catwalk." The mercenary came out of a side room.

"Thanks, how much does she pay you to put up with her antics" Paul looked around the shop and saw the tell tale marks of past explosions.

"She doesn't, I get half of the profit from the store, I'm her brother Jack. My sister is a genius but she is a bit… eccentric, she needs someone to remind her to do the little things like eating and sleeping. And someone who can handle getting their hands dirty" Jack touched the stock of the assault rifle on his back and withdrew a key as he walked toward the door. Paul followed him out and waited while Jack locked the door.

"Lead the way" Paul said as Jack began strolling up the walkway.

"So, you and Moira are related you look…" Paul trailed off unable to find a way to say anything without being offensive.

"Completely different, your right, Moira and I are both adopted, mom is a tinkerer and dad was a merc, they live in Canterbury Commons guess who takes after who" Jack said as he opened the door to the bar.

McKenna, Amata, and Moira were all sipping Nuka colas and chatting with the bartender, who was possibly the ugliest thing that Paul had ever seen. He looked suspiciously like a zombie from those old movies he and the girls used to watch.

"whatsa matter smooth skin, never seen a ghoul before?" the apparent ghoul said in a raspy voice. The face glaring at him had very little hair on it, no nose, and his skin was peeling off in strips.

"Relax Gob, this is the first time he's seen a ghoul, this is Paul, the guy we were telling you about, Paul this is Gob. He has a form of extreme radiation poisoning." McKenna explained as Gob took out two more bottles of Nuka for Paul and Jack.

"Moira was just talking about her plans for a book, The Wasteland Survival Guide" Amata was leaning against the bar with her sniper rifle leaning on a stool.

"We would love to help with it, wouldn't we guys" McKenna seemed as enamored by the idea as Moira was.

"Well, I need three things researched for the first chapter, I need someone to scavenge for supplies at the old grocery store down by the river, someone to contract radiation poisoning for study, and some one to become severely injured to study various treatments." Moira said ecstatically.

"We can handle the first one, but for the other two, we'll need other volunteers." McKenna knew this book could be a major step in the right direction for the wasteland, but no way was she going to get tortured over it.

"Either way guys, I had a look at that bomb, disarming it will be as easy as raiding the cafeteria's ice cream stash back in the vault, and the plutonium warhead is still completely intact." Paul mimicked Jack, knocking the top of his bottle against the counter to get it open then pocketing the cap.

"Great, Moira has a few containers that are lead lined to contain it until we figure out a good way to use, we worked out a way to build it into shaped charges to contain the blast but we still need to gather materials." McKenna noticed a man in a pinstriped suit gesturing toward her "hang on guys, I'll be right back."

McKenna made her way over to the man's table and she got a bad vibe off of him, he seemed like bad news.

"Nice to make your acquaintance my name is Mister Burke, and you are not a resident of this cesspool, that makes you quite valuable." Burke was grinning but the smile did not reach his eyes.

"And why is that, Mr. Burke." McKenna's hand was inching to her machine gun.

"I represent certain individuals with certain interests, Megaton; this place is a blight upon the land. If this place were to vanish who would car, I want you to take this and detonate the bomb, you will be compensated greatly." Burke slid a small box with wires coming out of it across the table to her.

"I'll need to talk to my compatriots." McKenna took the box as she stood up.

"Please take all the time you need" Burke leaned back in his chair with a smirk on his face, he was confident he had coerced her, as he took a sip of his drink he felt sure that Megaton was doomed.

**So ladies and gentlemen, what do you think.**

**I know what you're thinking,**

**Is Jake really evil enough to destroy Megaton?**

**Considering I hold the detonator that can turn this fine settlement into a crater, **

**You have to ask yourself one question.**

**Do I feel lucky?**

**Well, do you punk?**


	8. Chapter 8

"Get Simms now" McKenna told Moira in a hushed but excited tone.

"What, why" Moira was worried by her new friends tone.

"The guy in the suit wants to blow up the town" McKenna showed her what Moira and Paul immediately recognized as a fusion pulse charge. Moira ran out to do as McKenna had told her to. Amata slid her pistol out of her vest and Jack began to un-sling his assault rifle.

"If he tries to leave grab him, Gob get ready, this could get hairy" Gob nodded and McKenna could see him easing a combat shotgun out from under the bar. McKenna could also see him nod at the woman in the corner. The woman responded by subtly tapping her breast and a 32. Pistol slid out from under her shirt into the woman's waiting hand. McKenna realized the gun had been held in place by the woman's cleavage.

What a clever idea, McKenna thought.

Simms walked in with a fidgeting Moira.

"What in the hell is goin on here, Moira is tellin' me that some guy wants to blow up the town" Simms looked more than a little pissed.

"That is a fusion pulse charge; it is used as what is called an extreme secondary detonator. That means that it is used if the bomb made the target but has not detonated and the nuclear payload has degraded and is no longer volatile enough for a standard detonator, this creates a miniscule nuclear explosion inside the device and when wired up to a bomb like the one in the center of town the resulting from the explosion energy jump-starts the bomb and, well, BOOM." Paul explained and pointed out what part of the detonator did what as he went on.

"So, Moira said that the guy with the tortoise shell glasses was the one who tried to put you up to this" if Simms wasn't pissed before he sure as hell was now. When someone attacked his town he took it as a personal offense.

"Yeah but if I'm not mistaken, the imprint says he has a pistol under his jacket" McKenna had good eyes and was very perceptive.

"Well I know all I need to know" Simms grabbed the pulse charge and stormed over to Burke.

"Listen I don't know what your game is but I want you out of my town" Simms had his Chinese assault rifle out and pointed the barrel straight at Burke's face.

"I have no idea what you are talking about but if that is your wish I shall oblige" Burke began to get up, but suddenly pulled his gun and fired before being tackled by Jack.

The bullet flew by just barely grazing McKenna's arm before embedding itself into the bar. The events of the next few seconds were chaotic.

McKenna's hand flew to her arm but she didn't cry out, Amata flew forward and slammed her fist into Burke's face, Moira screamed, and Gob just stood there with his shotgun in hand wondering where to shoot.

"Shoot his ass" exclaimed Jack as he yanked Burke's hands behind the man's back. Simms pulled out a set of handcuffs and restrained the struggling man.

"Actually I was thinking more along the lines of community service" McKenna said with a smile. Everyone in the room, even Burke looked at her like she was insane.

"Moira you said you needed someone to test medical treatments on" McKenna was now reaching into her pack for a stim.

"Oh, oh yes, that would be absolutely perfect" Moira looked at her new friend and joined her in smiling.

Amata remembered the descriptions of what Moira needed from before Paul had arrived and a smile that would have made Mao squirm crossed her face.

Oh yes this man would pay for hurting her girlfriend, he would pay dearly.

**Ok guys I know this was a short one but I was sick and just wanted to get something up, I'm better now and I'll get something up soon.**

**Now for my reviewers**

**To eaglescorch: I'm not going to take out my favorite settlement and thank you. Oh yes, by the way, John is going the way of Leon and I can see a possible need for his death in the future. My team is very skilled and would do it pro bono, oh and unlike John they finish the job.**

**To Spikesagetta: yes that was the question I wanted answered and actually McKenna is the one who makes the decisions, Amata just makes sure they stick, oh yeah and none of them are bad, but Amata is the ruthless one.**

**Thanks everybody for sticking with me even with my recent absence.**

**R&R**

**The more reviews I get, the worse I torture Burke, I really want to torture this ass. Please give me lots of reviews so that I can torture his ass.  
**

**I do not own fallout. **


	9. Chapter 9

"AHHHHHHHHHHH please stop- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, please I can give you anything money, a place in Tenpenny Tower, anything just sto- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHH" Burke screamed and begged as Amata poured the whiskey over the wound. They were running all sorts of tests to see what makeshift medicine worked. Now they were testing to see how alcohol worked as a disinfectant for wounds. They had already gone through beer, vodka, scotch, tequila,, moonshine, absinthe, rum, wine, and now were going through whiskey.

It all became a simple process, wound Burke, pour alcohol on the wound, then swab the wound and set up Petri dishes to see how much bacteria and what kind grew. The process proved very painful to Burke. Amata handled the actual experiment while Moira and McKenna took notes and told her what to do.

"Would you please stop screaming, now how much pain are you experiencing on a scale of 1-10" Moira was excited to finally have someone to do her more… invasive experiments on. Sure she could capture a raider but they always had some affliction that made them different from your average waste Lander. Burke was absolutely perfect, he was well fed, not addicted to any recreational drugs, and he had no major injuries prior to this. The fact that he had hurt her new friend, tried to destroy her home, and attempted to kill everyone in town, including herself meant she held no pity for the man.

"GO TO HE- AHHHHHH" Amata grabbed a taser from the table next to the chair Burke was bound to and put the business end to the mans neck.

"Answer the question" Amata gave him an Antarctic glare.

"Uhh, fine 10, now stop" Burke slumped in his chair and started breathing heavily.

"Actually give him a break and rig up that heart monitor. McKenna, can you set up the electrodes on his head to monitor brainwave activity" Moira was busy furiously scribbling the results down.

"Sure" McKenna said as she withdrew the electrodes from the counter and began pasting them to the man's head.

"Please I will give you whatever you want" Burke was begging now.

Amata scoffed and gagged the man with a rag as she rigged up the heart monitor.

"Hey Amata, you think you and Moira can handle the next few experiments, I'm going to go help Paul and Jack with the bomb" McKenna was tired of hearing him scream, she held no sympathy for the man, but there was only so long you could hear someone scream in pain.

"Sure, we got this" Amata could see the weariness in her girlfriend's eyes, she needed a break.

McKenna strolled out the door and down to the crater. Paul had enlisted Jack and they were currently disassembling the bomb.

"How is it going" McKenna walked up to see Jack handing Paul tools.

"Pretty good, we decided to split the scrap with Walter; the detonation rig is down so all we have left to do is disassemble the thing and put the plutonium into containment units." Paul said without looking up from the bomb.

"Good, I'll tell Simms that the bomb is disarmed" McKenna turned and headed up to Simms' house. She knocked on the door and waited for Simms to answer.

"Hello" A young African American black boy came to the door.

"Hi, can you get your father for me" she smiled down at the boy, he can't be more than 10, she thought.

"Uh, yeah, sure, Ok" He must not be used to new people; McKenna smiled as she remembered herself at that age.

"Who is it Harden, oh it's you, what do ya' need" judging from the knife in his hand, she had caught the man as he was making dinner.

"I just wanted to tell you that the bomb is disarmed; now they're just disassembling it" She had to hold back laughter as the man's jaw dropped.

"Well, damn, I didn't think you could do it" he reached into his duster to get some caps. "Wait, do you three think you'll be hanging around for a while" The man stopped and said. McKenna thought for a moment before saying.

"Well yeah, we don't really have anywhere else to stay and until we get lead on my dad we don't have any where to go, so yeah we'll probably be here a while" Simms looked thoughtful for a moment before an idea popped into his head.

"Step inside, I have something to add to your payment" McKenna followed him inside and looked around the house. There were two tables and five chairs in the center; there was an armchair in the corner that McKenna was sure she saw movement behind.

Simms went up the stairs and out of sight. Harden, the young boy she could only assume was Simms' son, was looking everywhere. He looked under the table, under the stairs, even at the ceiling rafters.

"Looking for something" McKenna finally couldn't resist saying.

"I'm playing hide and seek with Maggie and she is a really good hider" as he was saying that she saw a young face with neck length dark hair and a ruby red hair band pop out from behind the armchair. McKenna realized that that must be Maggie; Maggie brought a finger to her lips in the universal gesture of silence and McKenna smiled even broader and gave the young girl just the slightest nod. Then there was the clank of boots on metal and Maggie dropped back behind the armchair.

"Here, after disarming the bomb and turning down a bribe to destroy the town, I know you can be trusted, plus you all seem to have skills that could really help the town. From now on you can consider yourselves citizens of megaton" Simms handed her a piece of paper. The paper read like this.

_This deed grants full ownership and property rights to a house in Megaton.  
Style: Standard Megaton dwelling_

Location: Megaton's upper level, directly above and behind the Brass Lantern  
Included Amenities: One "Mister Handy" robotic butler  
Other Amenities Available?: Other amenities can be purchased from Moira at Craterside Supply.

"Wow, thank you" McKenna was ecstatic on the inside, this solved a great deal of the future problems that could arise later.

"You three have well and truly earned it; it's the four story one above the brass lantern, enjoy it" Simms walked her out of his home but before she got out the door she heard a voice exclaim.

"Bye nice lady, thanks for not telling"

"HAH! There you are"

McKenna had to smile at that. As she walked out of the house and up to Moira's place she thought of all the games she and Amata used to play back when they were that age. She was always the stealthy one, she could move through the vault completely undetected. She knew the trick was to know when to move, when to freeze, and where people looked when they were going about their business.

When she got into Moira's, Paul and Jack were carrying several boxes into the side room and Moira and Amata were packing up the equipment. Then McKenna noticed that Amata was dumping what looked like a ring finger and an index finger into the garbage.

Amata saw the look on her face and said "we tested whether or not a stimpack could be used to reattach missing appendages; it only worked on the thumb"

"Ah, well guess what, I got us a house" Amata's eyes lit up when she heard that.

"Awesome how did you get that" Amata had always wanted a house and this solved her worries on where they would be able to stay.

"Simms gave it to us for disarming the bomb" Paul and Jack walked out of the side room as McKenna explained.

"What did Simms give us" Paul looked at his friends questioningly, he and Jack had just gotten the scrap and the plutonium squared away in lead lined boxes.

"Simms gave us a house." Paul nodded at this; he had held worries similar to his friends' about finding a place to stay.

….

They finished up at Moira's and the group, including Moira and Jack, went down to the Brass Lantern for dinner. Moira talked to McKenna about the sleep deprivation experiment she was going to run on Burke that night. They all had Brahmin steaks and instamash and washed it down with Nuka Cola. By the time they had finished with dinner it was getting late so the group bid their good nights to Moira and Jack before heading up to see their new house. It was four stories and looked like a slightly misshapen cube.

They unlocked the door and went inside. The first floor was comprised of a living area, a small kitchenette, a small bathroom, for some reason radio equipment next to the front door, and a a set of stairs leading up to the second floor. Paul claimed the bedroom on the second floor. The second floor contained a small bedroom and what appeared to be a storeroom with a white couch in it. A ladder led up to the third and fourth floor, the third floor was a big empty room, but several of the panels on the walls were removable. Amata noted that this room could be a very good sniping location, but she wondered what the previous inhabitant had planned. The ladder led up to the fourth floor as well and what they found up there proved to be very interesting.

In the center of the room was a heart shaped bed with crimson silk sheets. Above the bed was a skylight, with a sliding panel to cover it that covered the bed in the dim moonlight. They also found several wardrobes full of clothes of all kinds and sizes; they held everything from T-shirts to hoodies, from jeans to sweat pants, from pajamas to nightgowns, from boxers to panties. They had to wonder what the previous inhabitant had been doing with all of those clothes and on the bed. The girls laid claim to the top floor and McKenna changed into some sweatpants and a midriff bearing top. And found one of her old favorite books tucked into a desk. It was an old novel about a fourteen year old who is forced to become a spy and stop a poison attack on Britain.

McKenna finally settled into the main living area and curled up in the chair with her book. She had gotten to chapter five when she heard Amata's voice.

"I'm going to bed, care to join me" McKenna began her reply without even looking up.

"No, I think I- I I uh" McKenna stammered when she saw Amata.

Amata was wearing a sleeveless, half transparent, pink nightie that ended just below the thighs. It was held up with thin straps that McKenna could see unsnapped in the back. It covered her breasts with a lacy material that left her cleavage exposed. All in all, Amata looked completely and utterly sexy. What made McKenna nearly drool was the pair of panties at Amata's feet.

"Uh actually yeah I think I will" McKenna closed her book and headed up the ladder after Amata. Sayle could wait.

**I promised you guys something more substantial than the last one and here it is.**

**BTW, what do you guys think of the spacing I played around with it.**

**For the reviewers**

SPARTALAZOR**: yep it is.**

**Adios, R&R, BE back with a new chapter soon.**


	10. Chapter 10

Amata lay awake in bed with McKenna, their naked bodies intertwined. McKenna was fast asleep with her arm draped over Amata's stomach and her head on Amata's breast. Amata looked at her girlfriend's face; on it was the perfect expression of peace and tranquility. Amata drew a hand up to brush a few rogue strands of hair out of her lover's face.

"Mmmm hmmm huuuh" McKenna stirred just the slightest bit, snuggled closer to Amata, and promptly fell back into the black void of sleep. Amata was going through the events of the day. Burke had gotten his at the least, that thought brought a smile to her lips. He had hurt McKenna, he deserved everything he got and more, the smile turned into a smirk as those thoughts rolled through her head.

Amata had always been deeply protective of McKenna, even before they had left the vault. She was this way for one simple reason, she cared more about McKenna than she did about her own life, or anyone else's lives for that matter. Amata loved McKenna, she was a genius, beautiful, and she could lick her way to the center of a Nuka pop in thirty seconds flat. But McKenna had one fatal flaw that was also one of the things Amata loved most about her.

Simply put, McKenna was too good.

McKenna always saw the best in people in the vault; she was nice to you until you gave her a reason not to be, and unless you had proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were a horrible person, she always forgave.

But Amata had a feeling that forgiveness was not something they would find or be able to give often. She had only seen a small bit of this new world but her instincts told her that it was a very harsh place. Amata had always trusted her instincts and so far they had saved her quite a few times. It was her instincts that told her to stash some extra ammo in their room the night before their escape; it was her instincts that told her to get the password for her father's secret tunnel when she was thirteen. She also knew that she would need her instincts if she, Paul, and most importantly McKenna were going to survive out in the wastes.

As the image of the bullet grazing McKenna filled her head, the memory of another time that she had had to take measures against someone who hurt McKenna. It had been Butch, always Butch.

…

_"Kenna, Kenna, come on its time to wake up" Amata was poking and prodding at McKenna to get up but the girl had been up late reading The art of war. _

_"Come on Kenna, It's your birthday today." Amata tried tickling McKenna's stomach but all that accomplished was getting her to roll on to her back and open her mouth. A look of pure mischief crossed Amata's face and she skulked into the kitchen. When she came back she had an open bottle of ice cold Nuka Cola in her hand. Amata tipped the bottle over McKenna's mouth. McKenna's eyes snapped open the second she felt the liquid on her tongue._

_McKenna immediately drove her hands up hard and fast, one driving hard into TW17 and the other knocking the Nuka cola, the liquid still pouring into McKenna's mouth, out of Amata's hand. Amata stumbled backwards from the hit to her jaw as McKenna caught the bottle with her mouth and chugged it while holding the bottle with nothing but her lips._

_"What the heck was that about" Amata managed to recover as McKenna dropped the bottle in a trash can._

_"You tried to water board me in my sleep" McKenna pointed out as she moved over to her closet and began slipping on her jumpsuit._

_"Not true, I tried to Nuka board you, to wake you up." Amata giggled as she watched McKenna dress. It had been three days since McKenna had gotten her pip boy surgery and two since Amata had gotten hers and today they would both get their control gauntlets along with Paul Hannon, who had just gotten his yesterday. Amata had found it a bit odd that the three of them had all been born in the same year, in the same week, and all three of their mothers had died in child birth. Just seemed like a rather large coincidence to her._

_Not to mention it had been three days since they had decided to become girlfriend-girlfriend_

_"Same difference" McKenna said with a grin. Amata moved behind her and wrapped her arms around McKenna's waist._

_"Happy birthday owl" Amata whispered into McKenna's ear. _

_"Happy birthday royal" McKenna turned around and Amata pecked her on the lips._

_The girls walked out and headed to the diner where the "Surprise" party was. The girls had of course figured out about the party weeks ago. They met up with Paul in front of the diner._

_"What are you two doing here, this is an official tunnel snakes meeting, Butch told me about" McKenna and Amata both smiled at this, they liked Paul, he was a good kid, but he was way to focused on finding a crowd._

_"You know, you're cute when you're dumb, you know like a lost puppy" McKenna said. This only caused Paul to get more confused. Amata shook her head with a small laugh and opened the door._

_All three were blinded for a second by the instant change from dark to light. _

_"Stanley, you turned the lights on too fast, you blinded the poor kids" McKenna heard officer Gomez say as she began to stumble back. Amata instinctively caught her and supported her for the minute it took her to regain composure. McKenna had always had extremely acute senses, her vision was 20/05, she also had absolute pitch, her sense of smell could have made wolves green with envy, though for some reason her sense of taste was normal, and other than the ability to read vibrations so was her sense of touch. The downside to this was that certain things such as intense flashes of light, extremely loud noises, and certain intense smells could disorient or incapacitate her. This sort of thing had happened enough that Amata had it down to instinct, intense affront to sense equaled grab McKenna to keep her from falling._

_"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" they all yelled, their voices combining into one massive yell after McKenna recovered. After that the party went well, the overseer all presented them with their new control gauntlets for their pip boy networks, old lady Palmer gave them each a sweet roll for themselves, Paul went off to where the tunnel snakes were sitting. The girls were both thanking Stanley for programming their pip boys when Andy destroyed the cake, the girls burst into giggling fits at it._

_Amata's father called her over and McKenna decided to take a break, she leaned up against the bar to just process things._

_"I'm hungry and that stupid robot destroyed the cake, give me that sweet roll" Butch was looking at her with expectant scowl, like the fact that she hadn't immediately turned it over to him was a personal affront._

_"How about we share it, half for me, half for you, that's fair" McKenna personally just wanted to defuse the situation; it just wasn't worth talking to Butch._

_"How about we share it, what are you five, that sweet roll belongs to me." Butch was getting angrier as he spoke._

_"And why is that Butch, Mrs. Palmer gave it to me, it is Amata, Paul, and my birthday, not yours, and quite frankly your mom would probably try to trade it for an extra booze ration" McKenna was normally nice but Butch was drawing the venom out of her._

_"Listen you little bitch, I'm a guy and you are a girl, that means that I am better than you and you will do whatever I say" Butch looked like he was on the verge of a temper tantrum. McKenna was on the verge of a giggling fit, one last push and this misogynistic moron would be banging his fists on the floor like a toddler, again, she thought._

_"Here Butch you can have my sweet roll, just calm down" Paul tried to talk Butch down, but Butch was too far gone. Butch swung his fist back to punch Paul, but McKenna moved quick and managed to take the punch for Paul._

_"McKenna" Amata said as she immediately left her father and moved over to help McKenna. When Amata saw the blood gushing from McKenna's nose she pounced on Butch and pinned him to the ground with her knees. She then drove her left forearm, supported by her right hand pushing down on her left wrist, into his neck._

_"Listen, you got a problem with me, you take it up with me, you got a problem with McKenna, just drop it, and you'll live longer, get it." Amata's tone was glacial and her eyes were adamantium. _

_Butch just managed to give a small nod before passing out from lack of oxygen._

_"Good"._

…

Butch never did learn his lesson and they had had to put the tunnel snakes in their place more than a few times after that, but at the very least he learned that it was a bad idea to be misogynistic. Especially when the girls you were being misogynistic to knew how to kill you. They had also gotten Paul out of the deal and Amata knew he would be needed if they were going to survive out here.

Ah well, thoughts best left for another time, Amata thought. She then kissed McKenna's forehead and closed her eyes to drift off into the arms of Morpheus.

**And lo and behold chapter 10 is up.**

**I know I repeated myself a bit here with a few details but this was a reflection chapter for Amata so I kind of had to.**

**Also I know that the real Megaton house is not like the one I described, more specifically the extra two floors I added, but I had to make the place big enough to accommodate three nineteen year olds while still serving as a base of operations for an elite mercenary group.**

**Review time children!**

**Eaglescorch: Well first off I hope you did not take offense to my comment about John, it was meant as a joke not an insult. And secondly I hope this was enough of a push to get this into your favorite list.**

**Well you guys know the drill R&R**

**This has been Jake111 coming to you all the way from my fortified compound in the Illinois wastes.**

**(to those who have not figured it out by now, I am in a Three Dog** **mood)**


	11. Chapter 11

McKenna woke up and untangled herself from her girlfriend and stumbled over to the line of wardrobes, she searched through them until she found a drawer filled with men women's underwear. Seriously who was this guy and what was his deal. She could get it if he had run a store but there was no sign whoever had lived there had done anything other than live there. Once she had found and put on an appropriate pair of under wear she looked through the rest of the clothes before finally deciding on another midriff bearing top, this one black, and a pair of brown cargo pants and black tennis shoes.

McKenna walked over to the hole where the ladder went down to the second floor. She looked back at Amata's sleeping form tangled in the sheets on the bed. That girl had always been a deep sleeper, so had McKenna, but like her sensory overloads she had grown out of it. She slid down the ladder, catching a brief glance of the empty room, and landed softly on the second floor in front of the stairs. McKenna decided to check out the storeroom to see if the old owner had stashed anything in there. She opened the door and.

"How may I serve you master" McKenna jumped back and nearly fell over before grabbing the rail as she fell. She then proceeded to swing herself over using the momentum and catch her feet on the end of the pieces of scrap making up the floor for the second floor. McKenna then used her feet to push off, let go of the safety bar, flew through the air, and did a layout in the air, for a moment she was 12 again practicing her routines in the vault gym. She then landed safely on her feet; she heard a small round of applause from upstairs and looked up to see Paul leaned lazily over the rail.

"Good show mistress, good show" the robot floated down the stairs and offered her a Nuka cola. She took it, popped the cap off, pocketed it, and threw her head back to guzzle the soda.

"Where did this thing get Nuka cola" McKenna knew that there was no function on the average mister handy to make Nuka cola.

"Did you know this thing can go get food and stuff for us, yeah whoever lived here before us upgraded the things programming, it is awesome" Paul had put on a black T-shirt and jeans with white and red tennis shoes.

"Hey guys check what I found in those wardrobes" Amata came sliding down the ladder. She was wearing a grey T-shirt with a grey track jacket with black cargo pants. She had opted for grey and black tennis shoes. She also had a belt which had her pistol in an attached holster; there were also a few spare clips in cases attached to the belt.

Amata handed Paul a belt which he could clip his grenades on to and gave McKenna a hip holster for her sub-gun.

"I'm going to go talk to Walter he asked me to help him fix up a few things." Paul said as he strapped on his new belt and clipped his grenades onto it.

"I'm going to see if Simms could use another sniper to watch the gate." Amata slung her rifle over her shoulder and stuck a few extra 50mg. rounds into her ammo pouches on her belt.

"I'm going to go help Moira with Burke." McKenna slid her sub-gun into her hip holster and tucked a few syringes of med-x into the backpack the stranger had left them.

The three left their new home, McKenna locking the door on the way out. McKenna began navigating her way around the edge of the crater, near the wall, to Moira's shop. She strolled through the door to see Jack eating some kind of fruit; it looked like a smooth pale yellow tooth.

"Hey McKenna, Punga?" Jack cut a piece off with his combat knife and offered it to her.

"That depends on whether or not you cut someone with that thing before you cut that fruit with it" McKenna realized that not everything would be clean in the wasteland, but that did not mean she wanted something that might have traces of someone else's blood/flesh/bones cutting her fruit.

"Relax I just cleaned it last night before bed" Jack shook his head; it was not hard to tell this girl was new to the wasteland. McKenna took the fruit and bit into it, it had a sweet taste with bitter undertones, and the juice dribbled down her throat and left a strange taste on her tongue.

"Its called a Punga fruit, supposedly comes from Maryland, Moira says that the juices work as a mild and natural form of radaway, she says they have a huge nutritional value." Jack talked as he sliced the Punga into bite sized pieces. Moira came down from their upstairs bedroom, tying her hair into its usual pony tail and zipping up her jumpsuit.

"Hey Moira, how is Burke holding up after that sleep deprivation experiment" McKenna was rather interested in how these experiments on the evil waste Lander would turn out.

"Well, itty bitty problem for future experiments, all that we put him through yesterday must have been too much because now he is comatose, he is stable, he just won't wake up no matter what I try" Moira looked a bit crestfallen as she explained, he presented so many opportunities for the guide. Before McKenna could respond, the young girl she remembered had been playing hide and seek with Harden yesterday burst through the door.

"Maggie what's the rush" Jack recognized her as Billy Creel's adopted daughter.

The girl, Maggie, managed to catch her breath and began speaking so quickly that everything that came out was gibberish.

"Maggie, calm down, take a deep breath and tell us what is going on" McKenna dropped down to one knee to get to eye level with Maggie and clamped her hands on Maggie's shoulders as she spoke.

Maggie did as she was told; she took a deep breath and said,

"Somebody just collapsed in front of the gate into town; they're hurt real bad and Doc Church needs extra meds"

**And there we are folks, I know this was a cliff hanger but I have a very good reason, for the first time in my short history of writing on this site, I am going to accept OCs.**

**Few rules though, one they have to have a specialty, they can't just be some grunt with a gun, two I would prefer it if you guys tried to keep them within the age range of 17-20, three the roles of sniper, demolitions expert, medic, and tactician are filled so you have to come up with something other than those, also if I don't have any I like by the time I start work on the next chapter I will use one of my own but I will do my best to work in your OCs. **

**Reviews**

**SpartaLazor: well that is one of the things that I wanted to do, I am a huge yuri fan when it comes to anime and I just decided there were not enough lesbian fics on the site.**

**River: Thank you**

**Eaglescorch: Yeah I am kind of slowing down after my initial burst but you know what they say, slow and steady wins the race. And I will address your advice at the end of these comments.**

**Fiona: thanks I love to hear you're enjoying it.**

**Spikesagitta: yeah I have never liked Butch, he is going to get worse before he gets better, and the worse he gets in my flashback scenes the worse McKenna and Amata are going to give.**

**And now for the bad news, A trusted colleague on the site has informed me that if I plan on going the way that I want to go with this story I have to move the rating up to M, I ask that all my readers stick with me. Besides Fiona looks like you are going to get a good smut scene after all. **


	12. Chapter 12

To my readers,

As of 3:00 p.m. March 24, 2013, my story will be moved up to rating M. It will be taken off of the main list by the filters, To find it you will have to set the filters to show all ratings. I hope that you all will still stay with me after this


	13. Chapter 13

Amata had just climbed up the ladder to the sniper post, it was well concealed behind a part of the wall and she would have never found it if not for Simms showing her. When she got up there she was greeted by a young Hispanic man.

"Hey, you must be one of the new people that Simms talked about, Stockholm." The man set his hunting rifle on the bed. The catwalk had clearly been designed for long term shifts; it included a bed, several crates containing food, water, and ammo, as well as two chairs and a hotplate.

"Ok, here are the basics; the main threat comes from Springvale where a bunch of raiders are holed up in an old school. You know what a raider looks like right?" Stockholm looked at her questioningly.

"Check out the road going toward the mountains over in the ruins" Amata smirked as she remembered yesterday, she took a fair amount of pride in how quickly and efficiently they dropped those raiders. She wondered if there was something wrong with her for taking pride in taking lives. She decided it was ok as long as it did not turn into outright blood lust.

"Holy shit, did you guys drop those morons, three of them look like they didn't even get a shot off" Stockholm saw the bodies through the scope of his hunting rifle. Suddenly he noticed five figures rushing towards the town. He adjusted his zoom; he loved his rifle and took very good care of it. He had come across it in a high end gun shop where everything else had been taken except for an environmentally sealed safe, it had taken him two weeks to crack the safe, but in the end it was worth it because he had found this beauty. It was an Austrian Steyr with a Zeiss scope and was chambered to an American 338. Magnum caliber, more than ample to handle the local raiders, but not nearly as powerful as Amata's anti-material rifle. 4 of the figures were running, but were heavily winded. When he zoomed in on the fifth he could tell the guy was wounded badly.

Amata looked down her own scope and saw what was happening, without a second thought she pulled back the bolt and squeezed the trigger.

…

Andrew stumbled forward, he knew he just had to get to Megaton, they might not help him but at the very least they would give him a quick death, more than what his former friends would give him. He was just very glad that unlike his former colleagues, he had stayed away from the drugs and the booze. He could feel the blood flowing from the bullet wound in his shoulder, Andrew could taste it in his mouth, like liquid iron. He was dazing in and out from the head wound. He was nearing the gates and he could see two glints from a perch on the wall. He collapsed in front of the gate as he heard four shots in quick succession. The last thought he had before passing out was,

"Damn, I need a new jumpsuit."

…

McKenna was already in the clinic getting ready for surgery. She covered her face with a surgical mask and then began sterilizing the equipment. Simms and Church carried in a tall young man. He was about 6 ft. 10 with tanned Caucasian skin and relatively small facial features.

"Just set him down on the table and get his clothes off" McKenna saw Amata walk through the door and handed her a surgical mask.

"Uh, you two might want to see this" Simms motioned for the two young doctors over to the examination table.

"What happened, Jack told me you guys were here" Paul walked in and seeing the girls he knew from past experience to immediately put on a surgical mask.

"Who is that" Paul moved up to the examination table. The group was staring at a tattoo on the man's chest; it was the black outline of an anarchy symbol that looked like it was literally burned on to his chest.

"That's a raider tattoo, ain't no way in hell I'm treating a raider, just toss him back outside the gate for the buzzards." Church leaned back, crossed his arms and glared at the patient.

"we have to, whatever he is out there, right now he is our patient and that's all that matters" McKenna had always stood firm when it came to the principles her father had taught her.

"Says who, we have the skill, we get to decide who lives and who dies, besides that is one of the few perks left for wasteland doctors, you better learn quick kid" McKenna was caught between shock and rage at Church's rant, how dare he call himself a doctor even as he broke his Hippocratic oath with every word..

"Our Hippocratic oaths, that's who" McKenna had sworn that oath the day she became a doctor, same with Amata.

"I will not permit considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient; sound familiar" Amata was going to punch him if he did not shut it;

McKenna's father had always said that following the oath was possibly the most important duty of a doctor; McKenna's father had always been a better dad to Amata than her own so she took his word as law.

"In the waste land, we can't afford to follow those oaths." Church actually looked a little sad when he said it, but the look quickly changed back to jaded bitterness.

"Now get this scumbag the hell outta my clinic"

Paul looked at McKenna who then shared a look with Amata before giving the slightest dip of her chin and saying.

"Do it"

Paul reacted quickly, sliding behind Church and slipped one arm around the man's neck before tightening it with his other arm. Church fought briefly, but the sleeper hold only took four seconds to knock him out.

"Alright let's get to work"

…

The surgery began as Church was carried out of the room by Simms. McKenna started a med-x I.V. into the peripheral veins in his left arm. Once there was a steady flow of painkillers she began removing bullets from the chest and stomach. She found he had taken three 22. Caliber bullets to his right lung. While she continued to work on the GSWs, Amata ran an endotracheal tube to aid in breathing and a thoracostomy tube to get the residual blood and body fluids. Paul rigged up the ventilator Church had in the back; it hadn't been used in so long Paul had to reprogram the embedded system controlling the pressure and flow of the air. Paul was no doctor but he was an engineer and had spent enough time in the clinic to know how to work on medical machines.

McKenna drew a vial of his blood, "Paul run this up to Moira and have her test it to find its type." Paul took the vial and ran out of the room. Amata was busy removing a 44. Caliber from the shoulder, she extracted the bullet after finding it had not done any damage to the nerves or muscles and began to reconstruct the bone using a stim salve to regenerate the bonds between each piece.

McKenna found that the lower lobe of the right lung was beyond repair, she then used a scalpel to carefully remove it. Once it was off she coated the lung in the stim salve and proceeded to the next issue.

Amata had found a third degree burn covering his left upper arm; they were consistent with those of a flamer. She coated gauzes in bio gel and wrapped the burn.

McKenna used the salve on a stab wound that had actually punctured the stomach; once it was on, she stitched the wound and moved on to a slash wound to the side of the leg. The wound, she discovered, was superficial so she simply stitched it up.

By the time Moira had entered they had treated all of the bullet wounds, there were a total of 17 bullets of varying calibers in his body, and were moving on to other injuries.

"Here, he's type B-" Moira said as she walked in and handed Amata the test results. Amata stared down at them.

"Are there any B-s in Megaton" McKenna knew that B- was a hard blood type to get a hold of, it could be given to several blood types but could only receive blood from other B-s or O-s.

"No, I did a test on everyone a few years ago, we have everything but B- and O-, it was one of the few tests that Simms let me run on the townspeople" Moira looked a little mystified for a second as though reflecting on a fond memory.

"I checked the blood that Church has in stock, no B- or O-" Amata was not happy about that. All three of them knew that he had lost a lot of blood, if he didn't get a transfusion his odds dropped to damn near zero.

"Ok, he can have mine, I'm O-, my blood can be used for everyone." McKenna didn't even wait for a response; she just immediately went to get the transfusion equipment.

McKenna drained two pints of her blood into an I.V. before setting it on a second I.V. stand and running it into his right arm. Amata shook her head, knowing that once her girlfriend set her mind to something there was no stopping her but moved to examine a concussion that they had deemed to minor to be a priority at the beginning of the surgery.

"Moira, McKenna, you guys might want to see this" Amata found that there was an open fracture and it had begun to bleed.

"Damn looks like a freaking depressed fracture. Moira do you know how to do an elevation" McKenna immediately moved over to aid Amata.

"Yay I haven't been able to do one of those since Canterbury" Moira giggled with delight and moved over to them and they began the elevation.

The elevation was a clean success, once finished they bandaged the wound. McKenna looked at her pipboy; damn the surgery had taken four and a half hours in total.

Amata could see the exhausted look on her girlfriend's face, "hey, you go grab some rest, Moira and I can handle the removal of the endotracheal tube and set up the stim and liquid nutrient I.V.s"

"Thanks" McKenna wiped the sweat off of her brow and left the clinic. She headed straight for the brass lantern to get a bite. Once she got there, she sat down and Jenny Stahl took her order. She was halfway through some Blanco macaroni and cheese and a bottle of water when Church sat down next to her.

"Listen, we need to talk" Church said after a few minutes of silence.

"What is there to talk about, you forsake your oaths, plain and simple" McKenna was disgusted by this man, only a true worm would abandon his vows.

"Now that isn't true, I follow my oaths to the letter, but kid there are certain things you don't know about me, if you did you would understand" Church took on a sad expression that told tales of loss and sorrow.

"So make me understand" McKenna truly wanted to know what could drive a doctor from his sacred vows.

"I was born down south in Atlanta, My parents and everyone in the compound I grew up in were descended from the pre-war C.D.C., when I turned 18 my best friend and I decided to go out and find some adventure. We traveled from settlement to settlement; we saw the hell of the Pitt, fought with the continental marines in Philadelphia, we helped smuggle slaves out of the New Confederate States of America, we even rode with the steel pirates down in the Caribbean and Brownbeard up in New England" Church smiled wistfully at the memories.

"That was how it was for 12 years, just the two of us traveling from place to place, plying our trade and healing who we could. Then I met Mary, she was a traveling doctor like us, we were ambushed by a group of bandits and just when it seemed like they had us, the raiders began to get mowed down by machine gun fire. Mary walked over to where we had taken cover and told us to get the hell up, and then she thanked us for playing bait in her own ambush of the raiders. I fell in love with her the moment I laid eyes on her and invited her to join us, it took some convincing, but she agreed. And for another year, we wandered getting into even more adventures, and more trouble." McKenna was entranced by his story.

We decided to settle down in New York after one of our old friends from the continental marines came to us after he had been made commander-in-chief after securing Fort Stanwix and Fort Ticonderoga. He said that he was going to launch a campaign to secure Governors Island and he wanted Preston and I as the heads of the new hospital he was setting up there." Jenny came over and cleared the plates and set down two fresh bottles of purified water.

**(Things get really intense over the next few paragraphs, including rape and pedophilia. If you can't handle it skip it.)**

"The campaign was a success, and we spent the next nine years there. We treated the wounded from the siege of the Statue of Liberty and helped negotiate a deal with the Brokers. Then when I was 41, Mary gave birth to the twins. We had a boy named Edward, after her father, and a girl named Elizabeth, after my mother. I think those next seven years were the happiest in my life. But then came the day a group of junkies came in. It was routine, we treated the poor for free. Four junkies came in with one of their buddies; guy had O. and was going to die if he wasn't treated quickly. I had been in surgery at the time; a plasma rifle had exploded in one of the marines' hands, when I got back I found the one who had been O. , defiling the corpse of my wife, once Mary had treated him, his friends had held Elizabeth at gun point and forced Mary to unlock the drug cache, then Edward came in and tried to defend his sister. They just shot him in the head; my only solace is that at least he didn't suffer. The same can't be said for my wife and daughter. They raped and murdered my wife in front of my daughter." Church's face was despondent as he went through that part. McKenna shuddered inwardly; she could tell what happened next.

"I …coerced the druggie to give me the location of his friends, they had taken my daughter. Once he had told me where to find them I took a platoon of marines and cleared the place out. It was an old skyscraper, before the war it was called the Chrysler building; we slaughtered the raiders floor by floor. When we reached the top floor where the leader and his lieutenants were, we found the leader and his second in command standing over the naked body of my daughter. Being a doctor is one of the greatest things in the world, but that day I would've given anything not to be able to see the signs of sexual assault on my Elizabeth. There is a dark side to medicine, the knowledge we have can save lives or it can cause the greatest suffering. I made those men scream as I ripped out their throats and took every inch of skin from their bodies." Church's voice hushed to a whisper, McKenna could tell that this was no exaggeration.

**(Ok we're good.)**

"After that I buried my family and I left New York, Preston came with me and we wandered. I think my only goal at that time had been to kill as many raiders as I could before one of them got me. I gave up on medicine; it was something to help me make caps and nothing else. Eventually I settled down here and Preston went to Rivet City. But I really have to thank you." McKenna was surprised at that last part.

"For what" As far as McKenna knew all she had ever done for him was knocking him out and stealing his supplies.

"The passion you girls had to save the life of a person you had never even met, it reminded me why I became a doctor" Church gave her a small smile when he said it and raised his bottle.

"Cheers."

McKenna returned his smile and clinked her bottle against his "cheers."

**Ok Guys sorry I took so long but I have been really busy these past few weeks.**

**To all those who are sticking with me after I moved up the rating, thanks for the loyalty, I'll try to reward it.**

**And now for the reviews.**

**Collegegirl: thanks but I need specifics like personality and back-story**

**Fiona: Thanks your reviews always make my day.**

**Maturedeath: Its Ulysses**

**Either way I know things got intense in this chapter, a lot more intense then I meant it to, but it just kind of all flowed out so I am going to go with it.**

**R&R**


	14. Chapter 14

McKenna was on the third floor of their house, she was changing out the bandages on the boy who had collapsed at the gate. It had been six days since the operation, after he had become stable enough they had moved him and a great deal of medical equipment into their home, he was Ok, just in a coma. After the talk they had, Church had sent a courier to Canterbury Commons and within three days a doctor by the name of Hoff came with several pack Brahmin loaded with everything from heart monitors and I.V. stands to ventilators and crates of medicine.

They had actually had to cut a hole in the floor and use the part of the floor taken out, along with steel cables and a wench, to create a makeshift elevator to get the equipment up to the third floor. The mercenaries with Hoff had set up the elevator, and graciously left it fully operational, and the medical supplies on the third floor. When asked, they had said that the installation and renovations had been paid for by Church.

When she had asked, Church just gave a slow smile and said "If you're going to be a wasteland doctor, you're going to need a base of operations."

"Don't you mean a clinic? That stuff looks really expensive, how much did all that cost?" McKenna was stammering, but she knew that stuff would be hard to replace in the vault, out here it must be priceless.

"Oh, yes that's what I meant, and don't worry, I have enough caps" Church then turned away and began inspecting his stimpack supply, thus ending the conversation. Whatever the case, McKenna and Amata were very grateful

Maggie was at her side, taking the old bandages and disposing of them, helping with basic injections, and changing the I.V.s. Ever since they had saved the boy, Maggie had developed an attachment to the two girls, and McKenna knew it was turning into hero worship. But Maggie was a sweet kid, and the two kind of enjoyed her admiration.

"Come on Maggie" McKenna moved and slid down the ladder and headed down the stairs and out of the house, closely followed by Maggie.

They moved around the crater and went into Moriarty's; McKenna had seen the man but had yet to speak to him, and from what she had heard about him, she didn't want to.

McKenna held open the door for Maggie, who promptly charged at Billy Creel. The girl crashed into a hug with her adoptive father.

"Hey Kiddo" Billy returned the hug and looked at McKenna, "She wasn't too much trouble was she."

"No she was perfect, we're happy to take her whenever you need" McKenna smiled at the sight of Maggie burying her face into Billy's chest, just as she herself had done to her own father at 9.

"Thanks, I've been in negotiations with the caravans more and more, they want more caps" Billy released his little girl to go play with Harden.

"Why, is scavenging getting more dangerous" McKenna had heard that DC was filled with something called super mutants.

"No, it's the transport, it seems like raiders know the routes and schedules" Billy began to rub his furrowed brow.

"Well is there any chance they could have found out about the routes" McKenna's mind began to stray to the boy with the raider tattoo.

"No the only ones who know the caravan routes are the traders themselves and the local dealers." Billy's face fell into a look of deep thought.

"If I get the chance, I'll look into it for you" McKenna wondered if that boy knew anything about this.

"I would be grateful for any help I can get" Billy actually doubted that this girl could do much, disarming a bomb was one thing but no one could stop all the raiders in the waste.

McKenna said her goodbyes and headed over to the shop, when she opened the door she came face to face with the barrel of a rifle.

"What the hell" McKenna exclaimed when she saw her lover staring at her through the scope of a sniper rifle.

"Oh sorry Kenna, forgot you were meeting us here" Amata set the sniper rifle on the counter.

"Where did you get that thing, what happened to the anti-material rifle Ulysses gave you." McKenna felt the 12.7mm submachine gun against her hip; the man had given them tier 1 weapons and supplies, and then just vanished, strange but generous man.

"Moira got it from a caravan, and this ammo is way cheaper" Amata had already decided, she was a sniper.

"Plus it came with this" Moira popped up from behind the counter holding a small black cylinder.

"It's called a suppressor Moira, it masks muzzle flash and _suppresses _the sound of the shot." Jack looked up from cleaning his disassembled assault rifle and held the receiver to the sunlight coming in through the cracks in the walls. It gleamed like solid gold.

"So Amata could drop people without alerting them, I like that idea" McKenna thought that might come in handy. McKenna felt the inside pockets of her black jacket and found them empty.

"Damn, I forgot my pistol at the house, I have to run and grab it" McKenna liked to keep her sidearm with her at all time, 10mm bullets were a lot cheaper than 12.7mm.

"Here I'll go with you" Amata put on her jacket.

"Me three" Moira put the silencer next to the sniper rifle and followed them out leaving Jack to finish cleaning his rifle.

The three girls proceeded around the crater while chatting about Burke's coma, the conclusion they had come to was that the coma was psychologically induced due to the borderline torture they had put him through.

"Yeah, borderline" Amata thought. When McKenna opened the door the three girls were quite surprised at what they saw.

...

A few minutes after McKenna and Maggie left

Andrew slowly drifted into consciousness; he panicked for a moment, not knowing where he was. He settled down after a few seconds when he realized he was in some kind of clinic, he then began to methodically undo the various I.V.s and remove his breathing mask.

Andrew looked down and saw he was in nothing but a set of boxers, and bandages covered his stomach, the right side of his chest, his right shoulder, as well as parts of his arms and legs. He also realized that they had seen his tattoo and knew he was a raider, he had to wonder what doctor would treat a raider; he had heard that the one here actually hated raiders more than most. Andrew closed his eyes and retreated into his mind for a few seconds to come up with his next action.

"Ok, situation, a part of the horde has apparently betrayed the leadership, you need to know how deep the betrayal is, you are in a town full of people who have been raised to shoot raiders on sight, and you have no idea where in said town you are, your first priority is to get out and get back to the horde, current best possible course of action, recon.

Andrew moved over to the ladder, he was amazed at how he wasn't feeling much pain at all, he looked like he should feel like shit, but he only felt like he had slept on a particularly hard stretch of ground.

Andrew went up first, he got to the fourth floor and he noticed one thing before anything else.

"Holy shit someone's been having a lot of sex in here." Considering the state of the bed the last round had been just the night before, and after seeing the amount of women's lingerie piled up in the basket by the ladder, Andrew felt that a tip of the hat was in order for a man of such skill with the ladies.

"Now all I have to find is a hat and other clothes." he said to himself.

He went over to a random dresser out of the dozen or so lining the walls, in it he found a bunch of T-shirts, he grabbed a plain dark red one and then continued his search for pants. He found a pair of jeans in an armoire and a pair of black combat boots in a shoe rack.

"Good god this guy has a lot of clothes" Andrew finished dressing when he noticed a box containing several holsters. He searched it and found a shoulder holster.

"Ok, I have a holster, time to find a gun"

Andrew decided the next best course of action would be to go down. He slid down to the bottom and took in his surroundings, two other rooms on his floor, and stairs next to the ladder leading down to a living area. In the living area, from what he could see, were two chairs, a coffee table, a couch, and a book shelf. He saw what he was looking for on the coffee table, a 10mm pistol. He moved down the stairs and snatched the pistol off the table as he felt the weight of the gun in his hand he went back to a different place, a different time.

...

Nine years earlier

_Andrew was 13, he was standing in a large field, surrounding him were dozens of campfires. The entire raider camp took up almost a mile of land, and in a few days there would be no trace they had ever been there._

_"Kid pay attention, you need to know this shit." Andrew's adoptive father snapped his fingers in front of Andrew's face to draw him back to earth._

_"Yes sir" Andrew snapped back to reality as his adoptive father held up a 10mm pistol._

_"What is this" He said._

_"The N99 10mm pistol, it came into popularity after the phase out of the N80 in 2051. The N99 was known for its ability to survive in the harshest of conditions and it can reliably be restored to working condition after an extended period of time exposed to hard elements, the N99 can be easily repaired and maintained by anyone with even the most basic knowledge of firearm mechanics." This had been drilled into Andrew.  
_

_"Good, what is the first rule of warfare?"_

_"Never show a gun unless you're willing to use it" Andrew repeated the words he had heard so many times over the past year._

_"Very good, second rule."_

_"Only kill who needs to die" This, Andrew had been taught, was the most important rule of warfare._

_"Yes, this is what separates us from them" he pointed to the rest of the raiders._

_"So why do we involve ourselves with them" almost as soon as he had said it he regretted it and expected to be struck like the raiders always were when they questioned their leader's motives. But his adoptive father only nodded calmly and said this._

_"These men are fools, most are more beast than man, but beasts can be trained and that is what we must do. We must give them training and guidance."_

_"But what if they can't be trained, what about the men like the men who destroyed my home?"_

"_Then what happened to the men who destroyed your home must be put down like the rabid dogs they are." Andrew's adoptive father laid his hand on Andrew's shoulder, Andrew saw the same tattoo on it that all of the horde's leaders had, a white E surrounded by twelve stars with a deep black X burned over it._

**Alright that is chapter 14.**

**Okay guys I'm going to be blunt, I am in the homestretch of my school year, thus my teachers see this as a perfect reason to shove as much homework and as many projects as they can into the last two months (one month left now) so I am going to be updating whenever I can find the time, sorry guys, I promise that I'll post chapters more frequently once school lets out.**

**Oh and Allow me to formally introduce Andrew, I was waiting for him to get back into fighting shape to credit him, he is an OC from eaglescorch, once again thanks E.S. **

**Now for reviews**

**Elizabeth Carter: I stand by my creative license.**

**Fiona: Funny.**

**Well later people, like I said I'll do my best to get the chapter out quicker next time, but school is my main priority.**

**Once again R&R**


	15. Chapter 15

Andrew instinctively turned and aimed the pistol at the door when he heard it open, he expected hostilities to ensue. He saw three girls, two who looked like they were in the 19 to 20 range and one who looked to be about 15 or 16.

"What the hell are you doing?" Oddly enough it was the kid who spoke; Andrew had expected the hot Hispanic or the cute red head to respond.

"Now liste-" Andrew was cut off, but not in the way he expected.

"You should be in bed; you're going to tear your wounds open again." Andrew had expected them to be pissed about pointing a gun at them or raiding the closet, not that he was running the risk of hurting himself. Before he could react the kid had somehow surged forward across the room, faster than Andrew believed was humanly possible, and snatched the pistol right out of his hands.

"Sit down" she pushed him onto one of the armchairs and began to pull off his shirt. This girl was stronger than she looked.

"If you were a few years older I wouldn't mind this but- owww" Andrew gritted his teeth as the kid began to take stitches out of one of his wounds.

"Ok, one, how old do you think I am" McKenna could already guess his response.

"I don't know 15, 16 at most." Andrew something was off when he saw the hot Hispanic chick trying not to laugh and the disgruntled look on the girl's face.

"19 actually" Andrew's face turned into a look of shock.

"You are shitting me"

"No, second, who are you" the girl said and began swear in mandarin. Andre had to wonder where the girl had learned that, most people in the wastes only knew Basic English but this girl spoke like she was straight out of Beijing.

"Daniels, Andrew Daniels, raider tactician extraordinaire, and who do I have the pleasure of thanking for saving my life"

"All three of us handled the surgery." It was the hot Hispanic who spoke this time. Andrew took a minute to look her over, she was 6 foot 2 inches, if she wasn't stuffing her bra she was a C cup, light brown hair she had done up into a tight pony tail, oddly enough the detail Andrew found most striking was the deep amber eyes she had. That was weird as Andrew's attention was normally attracted by the more obvious assets of a woman, definitely not her eyes. Despite himself, he began to undress her in his mind, first the T-shirt came off showing off the toned abs he thought of her having, then he slid her pants down to show off a pair of long well muscled legs, and then he began to imagine her bra unclasping when suddenly he felt a stab of white hot pain in his arm.

"Owwww, who are you three anyway?"

"Stop picturing her naked and I'm McKenna Casey, the redhead who was probably next on your list is Moira Brown, and my girlfriend is Amata Almovadar, only I'm allowed to see her naked." She retrieved the needle from the nerve point where she had stabbed him in the arm.

"Girlfriend, ohhh, you two are dyk- owww. Will you stop doing that?" she had stabbed him in the back with her needle.

"Don't call us that." The girl went back to undoing the stitching on a stab wound to his lower back.

"Ok, first rule that my dad taught me was, don't fuck with the cooks and don't fuck with the doctors, so whatever you want" Andrew knew not to mess with the girl who knew how to kill him without anyone knowing.

"Good rule, which brings us to question number three, why were you chased by your fellow raiders, gang war?" McKenna was marveling at how quickly he had healed. Amata went over to their fridge and grabbed them each a bottle of purified water, She handed one to each of them as Moira ran her hands over Andrew's tattoo. Amata moved over to sit cross legged on the couch and McKenna soon followed her. McKenna sprawled out on the couch with her head lying in Amata's lap.

"Are you a vaulty?" Andrew said incredulously, raiders didn't have gang wars; they were too chaotic to form a basic hierarchy most of the time, much less have any formal enemies.

"Yes, so is Amata and so is Paul, you'll meet him, why?" McKenna replied casually as Andrew gaped like a fish.

"Well you are just full of surprises" All of the Vaults that Andrew had found were basically deathtraps.

"Why does that seem to surprise everyone, there were a lot of vaults, and some of them must have been opened by now" McKenna had expected that there would be plenty of vaults open in D.C.

"Yeah I've been in a few vaults; they were basically giant tombs with a nice large deathtrap factor. Basically if you're lucky they are just big steel tombs with skeletons scattered throughout, if you're unlucky, they're deathtraps." Andrew could not help but think of one scavenging excursion in particular where all of the inhabitants had been filled to the brim with clones that tried to kill everything other than each other. From their battle cry of "GARY" he had assumed that they were named Gary.

"Well, that is unexpected; we need to talk about that later, but either way back to the subject at hand, why were those raiders chasing you?" McKenna kept a firm poker face as she considered this development.

"As you probably saw from my tat, I am a raider; we are a pretty big group, probably about three hundred standard grunts with a high command group of about ten men. One commanding officer per every thirty men, I am in the command group." Andrew stopped when he saw the door open and two men about the girls' age come in.

"Sleeping beauty is finally awake I take it" The black one with the grenades on his belt chuckled.

"Yes sleeping beauty is and sleeping beauty happens to be a very deadly veteran raider." Andrew did not take well to criticism, mainly because usually he could kill anyone who fucked with him. It was one of the reasons that he had always refused the outcasts when they offered.

"Guys meet Andrew, Andrew meet Paul, my team's resident demolitions specialist and engineer." She pointed to the black one, who raised his hand in acknowledgement. "And Jack brown." She pointed to the Hispanic with the assault rifle. McKenna didn't even realize she had said her team until after she finished talking.

"You two married?" From the fact that they looked completely different, Andrew was sure that there was no way they could be related. They were different races for Pete's sake.

"He is my brother actually" Moira huffed; she did not understand why no one ever seemed to see that they were siblings.

"And?" that threw Andrew for a loop.

"First shut the fuck up and second we are both adopted" Jack spoke like he had that answer down from all of the times that he had to explain it, Jack's tone reminded Andrew of reciting the various lessons that had been drilled into his head over the years

"Well that makes a lot more sense, you said the black guy was your explosives expert, are you guys a merc outfit or something." If so, they were unlike any merc outfit Andrew had ever encountered.

"No, well we haven't thought about anything like that, but now that I do think about it we do seem have the right skill set." Even though Andrew had just met her, even he could see the wheels starting to turn in the petite girls head.

"If you are then I'm game, I'm going to need to find something to do until the horde gets here." Andrew did not expect any of them to react well to the fact that a raider horde would be coming to get him. McKenna fell into a look of cold calculation as she stared up at the ceiling. Amata began running her hands through the smaller girl's hair. Paul began tossing one of his grenades from hand to hand. Moira sat back in her chair with a look similar to McKenna's. Jack simply leaned against the wall and gave him a look of neutrality.

"Exactly what will this horde do when they get here and how will they know you're here?" Jack withdrew a deck of cards and began to shuffle them.

"Well that depends on whether or not the entire horde betrayed command, if they didn't, then when the horde arrives, my f- commanding officer will probably pay you a few thousand caps for fixing saving my life and let the grunts lose to buy up supplies and blow off steam and drop caps at the nearest bar to generate goodwill for future interactions." Andrew kicked himself for nearly saying father, these seemed like good people but he wasn't about to let them in on that this early, maybe later if he stuck around long enough.

"Raiders that actually pay for their supplies, that's rather odd." Moira's countenance moved from went from cool and calculating to perplexed and pondering.

"The command group gets together whenever we come across a settlement, we then decide whether it is more profitable to raid the settlement or establish relations with it." Andrew had to wonder why they were so interested in how his faction operated.

"Damn good thinking." Jack said without looking up from his cards.

(McKenna P.O.V.)

"Why" McKenna always felt slightly horny when she had her head in Amata's lap, she was doing her best to distract herself from the images of what she wanted to do and what Amata and herself were going to do that night. They had been having sex nightly since moving into their new house, and so far it had been the best experience of her life. She found herself looking forward to sinking her tongue into Amata's sweet, moist- WHOA, stop thinking about that and focus on the here and now, you do not want to wet your panties in front of company, McKenna thought.

(End of McKenna P.O.V. sorry guys I forgot whose P.O.V. I was writing from for this paragraph. All of the others are Andrew's P.O.V.)

"Raider hordes generally rally together for one good, massive raid and then they disperse back into small groups; the problem is that they can never raid enough to keep a steady amount of supplies for large groups. That's why you generally never see raiders in groups bigger than twenty or thirty. By establishing trade with settlements you solve that problem and gain possible safe havens, your commander is one clever son of a bitch." Jack never stopped shuffling.

"Thank you" Andrew wasn't sure whether that was a compliment or an insult.

"You said that is what they will do if the horde didn't betray the command group, what will happen if they did?" Amata asked as she played with a strand of McKenna's hair.

"Well then things go very, very south. Most likely the remaining command group will have scattered and gone into hiding, the horde will be sending out teams to look for them. When they find a member, they will most likely rally together and bear down on that member with the full force of the horde." Once again Andrew had expected fear from his new found allies, but once again all he got were varying looks of something between boredom and neutrality. McKenna never moved her head from Amata's lap; Paul just kept tossing his grenade. Moira just looked puzzled and Jack never looked up from his cards.

"So how many raiders are we talking about exactly?" Jack asked.

"Minimum of 90, the horde may have already started to disperse. Or kill each other over who is in charge now; the command group was really the only thing holding it together." Andrew wondered who was left of the command group other than him. No one would have helped the raiders, would they? No that's impossible, he thought.

"Well that's manageable, between Simms, Stockholm, Jericho, and us; we could probably just seal up the gates and pick them off from the sniper platform till the bodies start to pile up and they realize it's not worth the trouble." Jack spoke like he had taken on big raider groups with small forces before.

"Maximum is 300, more if they recruit from the local gangs" McKenna said, silence permeated the room as the statement sunk in.

"Well, I could use a drink, anyone else care to join me" Jack was the one who finally broke the silence.

"I could go for a Nuka cola" McKenna sat up and propped herself up with one arm.

This idea was met by varying replies of agreement and fifteen minutes later they all found themselves walking into Moriarty's.

"Gob meet Andrew, Andrew meet Gob" Amata introduced him as she took a seat at the bar.

"Pleased to meet you kid, let me guess, scotch" The ghoul behind the bar extended a hand with the tendons showing.

"Good to meet you to, and yeah, how'd you know" Andrew took the hand and shook it. He was slightly impressed at the ghoul's ability to correctly guess his drink of choice.

"I have been a bartender for 165 years kid; I know every form of drink ever conceived by humans and ghouls. By now I can just tell" Gob said with a cocky smirk

"So how did you end up here oh bartender extraordinaire?" Andrew asked as Gob began taking out Nuka colas and a bottle of scotch. Andrew could feel the three girls glaring at him; he then noticed that he was the only member of the group drinking alcohol. Ah well, these girls will not get me to give up alcohol, he thought.

"Kid I was born in 2092 to some whore who decided to leave me on the door step to the Museum of History instead of dealing with the fact that she had a kid, why the Museum of history I have no clue. I was raised by a woman who started a restaurant and bar. I spent 18 years in that place before my flesh started to fall off. I spent 150 years as a bartender there then I took two years to wander. I ran into Nova traveled with her for a time, and then she ended up getting hurt really bad by raiders. We got here and we got lucky I guess you could say, there was a traveling doctor in town. He was a greedy fuck who could afford to overcharge because he was the only doc around. That made me make the stupidest mistake of my life, I asked Moriarty for a loan. I offered my services to pay off the debt but he just keeps adding interest to keep Nova and me here." Gob finished his story just as Nova came down the stairs followed by her latest client, some caravanneer this time, and a very angry, very familiar looking, Irishman came out from the backroom.

"GOB! Will you shut your trap? I should beat the living-, oh shit!" Andrew suddenly realized where he knew this guy from, this was Colin Moriarty. This would be a good chance to score points with the people of this town, he thought.

"What Colin, aren't you happy to see your best customer" Andrew adopted a smug smirk and a mocking tone.

"What are you talking about kid? You've never bought a drink here before today." Gob questioned.

"This kid is a fucking raider fuck, he's a lying fucking motherfucker" Moriarty was screaming in hysterical anger.

"Colin stop demonstrating your expansive vocabulary and let me speak. You are correct grandmaster bartender, I have never been here before, but I have met our dear friend Colin before. You see Colin, the true mercenary he is, sells caravan schedules and routes to raiders for a couple hundred caps a piece." Moriarty was literally glowing red and damn near steaming out of the ears. Andrew was a skilled tactician, but his true talent, what he was uncommonly gifted at, was his ability to piss people off.

Things progressed very quickly after that, Gob grabbed Moriarty and everyone in the room had drawn their weapons and trained them at Moriarty. McKenna sent Maggie to get Simms. Once Simms got there and they explained the situation, he took Moriarty into his custody. There was only one problem; they had no clue what to do with him.

"Let's just kill him, an eye for an eye and all that." Billy Creel seemed to take the betrayal of the caravans as a personal offense.

"Well we can't lock him up, we don't have a place to put him" Stockholm said.

"We aren't murderers; I have a better idea; turn him out into the wastes with just his clothes and a pistol." McKenna apparently wanted to take the moral way. Andrew preferred to the quick and dirty way.

This seemed to satisfy everyone as most were sure that he would die out there anyway and still left them all with a clear conscious. So they bound, gagged, and escorted Moriarty to the gates.

"Oh yeah by the way Gob and Nova get everything you own." McKenna said and looked at Simms for confirmation, Simms nodded. Andrew removed the gag and untied his hands as they pushed him out the gates.

Moriarty screamed over the creek of the closing gates

"I will make you regret the day you crossed me, Megaton and all of you fucks will burn, do you hear me, you will all burn."

**So people this was chapter 15, what do you guys think?**

**Next chapter I am going to do one of three things. I have a good idea to start Operation Anchorage, which I will be expanding massively, the part the game shows will just be a small bit. I also have been setting up the horde's arrival for the last two chapters so I could do that. Or (and this is for you Fiona and you River because your Ghoul Sexy Time gave me the idea) I could do a lesbian sex scene between McKenna and Amata.**

**I can't decide so the one that gets the most reviews will be the one that I go with.**

**Well that is it, later guys, remember to R&R guys**


	16. Chapter 16

McKenna looked in the mirror; she had on a peach blouse, a pair of blue jeans with some strategically distressed areas, and her favorite black tennis shoes, her hair was flowing down her back as usual. She felt a pair of hands on her hips, the second she turned around a set of soft lips planted themselves on hers. She put up no resistance as Amata drew her in closer; McKenna went up onto the tips of her toes as Amata went deeper into the kiss. McKenna felt her girlfriend gently bite down on her lower lip before she slid her tongue into McKenna's mouth. Amata slid her hands under McKenna's shirt. McKenna gave a slight shiver of pleasure as Amata moved her hands up McKenna's back, lightly pressing her more sensitive nerves. Finally the taller girl's skilled fingers came to rest on her shoulder blades. McKenna pulled away just as Amata moved to undo the clasps on her bra.

"Not now, we'll be late to the party." Gob was throwing a party to celebrate the reopening of the bar after a three day closure, which he had ever so creatively renamed from Moriarty's Saloon to Gob's Saloon.

"This seems like a lot more fun then the party" Amata whispered into her ear as she nuzzled McKenna's neck.

"The boys are downstairs waiting for usssahhh" she gave a small moan as her lover began to suck on a certain spot on her neck. McKenna was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince Amata. She knew that they didn't have time for this, but damn did it feel good.

"Fine" Amata grudgingly let go of McKenna and pulled away. She smoothed out her black lace peplum top and her dark blue jeans. She had gone with a pair of dark blue tennis shoes with silver highlights. Amata gave her one last peck on the lips and then moved to slide down the ladder, closely followed by McKenna.

When she got to the bottom of the ladder she saw the boys and Moira down the steps. Paul was dressed in a simple white button down dress shirt with khaki pants and dark blue tennis shoes. Jack had gone with a similar outfit but his included combat boots, a bullet proof vest, and an accessory to top off the outfit, a 10mm sub-machine gun.

"Expecting trouble Jack" Moira said to her brother. McKenna looked at Moira, to say that girl cleaned up well was an understatement. She was flat out, drop dead, jaw droppingly gorgeous. She had gone with a midnight blue sleeveless and strapless gown with a deep v-neck that stopped just short of what McKenna liked to call, The Line of Sluttitude. The dress also included a slit starting at her hip and going down the left side of her legs. She had topped off the outfit with matching midnight blue pumps and a necklace made up of a thin steel chain ending in a silver cog that looked like it was from a pocket watch. Her hair was done into upward angled ponytail with the tips coming back down toward her head. The tips were dyed midnight blue and she was wearing matching lipstick and eyeliner.

"There are two big caravans in town and that means that there will be at least two dozen non locals at this party, someone has to give them a good don't fuck with my sister or my friends vibe, oh and McKenna, Amata, you might want to stop drooling." Jack said as he glanced up at the two girls who were both going through mixed expressions of awe, jealousy and libido.

"Do you guys like it? I made the dress and the necklace myself; I got the shoes and the makeup from Crow." They're staring at me, I must look hideous. I knew I should have just worn one of my jumpsuits, thought Moira.

"Moira, I'm not sure whether to call you a bitch for making the rest of us look bad by comparison." Amata suddenly felt self conscious of her own simple outfit.

"Or tear off that dress and bang you right there on the couch" McKenna was completely faithful to Amata, but that didn't mean that she couldn't have some rather enjoyable thoughts, did it? She decided it didn't.

"Oh, so you do like it? Yay, I was worried there for a second." McKenna and Amata being her only female friends, Moira really worried about what they thought of her.

"McKenna, sometime tonight we need to discuss the idea of threesomes in our relationship." Amata licked her lips and shared a look with McKenna, yep we're both on the same page, she thought.

"No, no, just hell no, you are not going to talk about having sex with my sister right in front of me." That was something that Jack simply would not stand for.

"So can we talk about having sex with her when you're not around?" Jack gave McKenna a glare that could kill.

"Guys, as entertaining as this is and as stunning as Moira looks, we really have to get going if we don't want to be late." Paul finally entered the conversation.

"Well, shall we" McKenna extended her arm, Amata hooked her own arm through it, and they strolled out the door.

…..

As they walked into the saloon every eye in the room fell on their group, Moira in particular. There were a good 50 or 60 people in the bar, the vast majority appeared to be locals, but just as Jack had said, about 24 of them were traveling merchants and mercenaries. McKenna spotted Andrew sitting at the bar next to Jericho; the two apparently went way back. Personally McKenna thought that it was because they were both ex raiders

"Hey guys, over here" Gob called them over to a group dressed in semi-formal clothing, the common feature among them being the silver pins they all wore. The pin was composed of a circle with wings under it, a sword went through the center of the insignia and a lion was superimposed over the blade. McKenna could see him cracking jokes and laughing with a rather large black man wearing a light blue polo and jeans.

"Kodiak, meet McKenna, Amata, and Paul, they are the kids from vault 101 that I told you about." Now that they were closer, McKenna could see that Gob was wearing a full black suit with a red suit and loafers. On his arm was Nova, who was wearing an absurdly short black skirt and a black top with a V-neck that went about 20 miles past The Line of Sluttitude.

"Pleasure to meet you, my name's Greg, Greg Bear, but everyone calls me Kodiak." Kodiak extended his massive paw of a hand to shake. McKenna could see where the man got his nickname; he was as big and as strong as an Alaskan Brown Bear.

"McKenna Michael Casey MD." McKenna's hand felt dainty as it was nearly enveloped by the bear-like man.

"Amata Sebastian Almovadar, also MD." Good lord, this man could crush steel with his bare hands, Amata thought.

"Actual degrees? Well I'll be damned; I didn't think that you could still get one outside of Atlanta." McKenna had decided that she liked the man; he had a gruff but likable personality. He and the Hispanic man in the sweater vest and slacks were the only ones who looked completely comfortable around the wastelanders and the ghoul.

Kodiak then turned and extended his hand to Paul, "You a doctor to?" To Kodiak's surprise Paul not only accepted the handshake without the hesitation the girls had, but actually squeezed back.

"No, just an engineering degree, Paul Barbara Hannon Jr." before they had left, Paul had been considered to be the strongest guy in the vault, and he would be damned if he didn't show this bear who the stronger man was.

"I think we're going to need to find a table to settle this dispute properly" Kodiak squeezed the younger man's hand back, he liked the kid's spunk, but he was the strongest man in the brotherhood, and he would not be shown up by a kid.

"Ok, I have got to see this." The young Asian woman wearing a white blouse and khaki capris led the two black men through the crowd to find a table to arm wrestle on.

"So how long have you guys known each other?" The Hispanic man stated as he brought a beer to his lips

"Amata, Paul and I have known each other, practically, since birth, small vault, you know. Amata and I have been friends for about the same amount of time, we officially decided to be together when we were 10. Later we convinced Paul to leave the Tunnel Snakes and start hanging with us." She paused when the pretty blonde in the grey T shirt and cargo pants started to look uncomfortable, well more uncomfortable than she had looked.

"By together do you mean…?" The Hispanic man said after noticing the blonde's obvious discomfort.

"Together, as in we are both lesbians, yes." McKenna wondered if she had somehow insulted the blonde, she had stopped looking uncomfortable and had settled into a pissed off expression while deliberately not looking at McKenna.

"Well, no offense, but you look a bit young for that. What are you, 15?" Now it was McKenna's turn to look visibly annoyed.

"19 actually, Amata and I have been together for 9 years." Why, in god's name, does everyone think that I'm younger than I am, McKenna thought.

"You'll have to excuse me." The blonde deliberately bumped into McKenna and Amata as she shouldered her way past and disappeared into the crowd, which was growing in number as another few large groups came in.

"I'm sorry, but what is her deal, did I say something that offended her." McKenna couldn't think of a single thing that she had said that the woman could have been insulted by.

"You'll have to forgive Sarah, the brotherhood doesn't really like homosexuality, we are a more liberal chapter, but Sarah is a steadfast traditionalist, you'll have to excuse us. It was nice meeting you." And with that, the Hispanic man led his friends off to find the blonde, apparently Sarah.

"I'm sorry guys, I'm just friends with Kodiak and I know that he hasn't got issues with anyone" Gob hadn't expected the entire Lyon's Pride to show up.

"Who were those guys" McKenna had heard the brotherhood mentioned before, but she had no idea who they were.

"They are the Lyon's pride, the elite shock troops of the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood is the major military power in the wastes. They're mostly tied up with the super mutants in D.C. A lot of those guys have superiority complexes, you know, they think that they're better than you're average waste lander because they have power armor and energy weapons. They're a good organization though; the elder is seriously committed to helping the wasteland." Nova answered to the surprise of jack and Moira who had just gotten back from the bar with drinks.

"When did you become such an expert on the BoS Nova?" As far a Jack knew Nova was just, well, a whore.

"I was an initiate for a while before I met Gob; it's where I learned how to use a pistol, all in all it was a pretty sweet gig. That ended real quick when a paladin decided that the hot waster initiate was perfect to be the next notch in his belt. I disagreed, he didn't take no for an answer." Nova grimaced as she recalled that particular memory.

"What happened?" This was something that amazed Jack; he had looked into the past of almost everyone in Megaton to get an accurate threat assessment of them all. He hadn't looked into Gob or nova because they just seemed like two slaves.

"He made a move on me and I shot him in the dick with my laser pistol, after that the brotherhood tossed my ass out, a few weeks later I met Gob, and you know the rest. Dick heads wouldn't even let me keep my laser pistol." Nova had liked that pistol, but her 32 was a gift from Gob. It was the first thing that he had given to her so it held a great deal of sentimental value.

"You seriously shot him in the dick with a laser pistol, that's fucking hilarious" said Jack. The whole group broke into boisterous laughter.

"But either way, I'm really sorry guys. Most people don't have time to take a stance on gays; you know having to deal with a world that tries it's best to kill you everyday." Gob said as he was looking at the door, a few more people were trickling in. A part of him was massively excited, with all the people buying drinks, tonight would probably square his books for the next month. On the other hand he wasn't quite sure that the new bartenders could handle this kind of rush. They looked like they had experience, but at he would feel a lot better if he was behind the bar to.

"No problem Gob, We're used to it, there was plenty of old world homophobia down in the vault." McKenna said as she thought back to Butch.

"Fuck this place is getting packed, I better go help Sean and Mackenzie behind the bar, can you handle the mingling for a while babe?" Nova's only response was to plant a kiss on his lips and smile. Gob took this as a yes and began to make his way through the crowd toward the bar.

"Let's go meet the new bartenders." McKenna said as Nova turned to talk to some caravan merchant. She then led Amata over to the bar. Moira meant to follow, but she was to busy being assaulted with compliments and advances by various merchants and mercenaries. All under the watchful, and intimidating, eye of Jack of course.

When they got up to the bar, the new bartenders introduced themselves. One was a well muscled, 6 feet tall, 24 year old man of Irish descent, complete with freckles, fiery red hair, and accent. His name was Sean O'Connor. The other was a 22 year old knockout blonde bombshell. She was everything that could be expected of that stereotype; she was a C cup, 6ft 3in, she looked be about a 24 in the waist, and she couldn't have weighed more than 130 pounds. The only non stereotypical thing about her was the fact that she was a chemistry whiz. Her name was Mackenzie Morris. The bar was crazy with at least 4 people ordering drinks at one time.

"McKenna, what's up?" Andrew was on his third glass of scotch for the evening, he wanted to be able to remember his name the next morning. He had been staying with Jericho.

Jericho had been in the horde for a good decade before finally retiring after a particularly big score. He was one of the few members of the horde, outside of the command group, to actually earn the respect of Andrew and his father. He actually understood why they weren't allowed to get drunk or high before raids, why they made agreements with certain settlements instead of just pillaging them, why they left survivors and never killed anyone who didn't resist, and why raping the women was frowned upon. He was also one of the men who understood Andrew's own personal rule, no killing kids.

"Hey Andrew, not much, just making introductions, meeting people, getting to know the factions the usual." McKenna looked Andrew over; he was wearing a dark red button down shirt with black slacks and black combat boots. He also was not nearly as drunk as she thought he would be.

"Well this is the perfect chance for me to introduce you to the factions here in the capital." Andrew pointed to a particularly rowdy bunch of mercenaries.

"The mercs that are acting like dumb asses, but aren't even drunk yet, are Talon Company. Those guys are a merc group, but honestly they're no better than raiders, at least not morally. They're better organized and better equipped, but they'll do anything from murder to pillaging if you pay them. They're based up north in fort Bannister, their leader is a sadistic fuck named Jabasco." Andrew had killed plenty of those morons; they tended to take any contract that they were given, so long as it paid.

"How can you tell, they don't look any different from the other mercs." McKenna looked at every detail of them, other than being louder and more obnoxious they blended in with the crowd.

"Look closer, you can just barely see a white eagle claw tattoo poking out of his collar." McKenna looked at his collar and sure enough there was the tattoo.

"Ok, check out the guys talking to Simms." McKenna popped the top off of the fresh Nuka cola that Sean had set in front of her and looked over to see Simms talking to a group of people wearing the same dusters that he always wore.

"Those guys are Regulators, a group of bounty hunters spanning the east coast. They are obsessed with cleansing the wasteland of evil through what they call wasteland justice, basically killing people. From what Jericho tells me Simms used to be one." Those guys were a thorn in the horde's side; they only ever hit small scouting parties as the main force was way to large for even a whole chapter of Regulators, but it still got annoying.

"Sounds like a decent group." McKenna could agree with a group trying to take out the assholes of the wastes.

"Yeah, I can respect their goals, but it still get's annoying when they take out the horde's scouting parties. Plus they aren't all that big on due process, they suspect you, BOOM, dead." To illustrate, he made a finger gun, put it to his temple, then made the movement of a gun going up after firing and him falling dead.

"I can see how that could be a problem" McKenna scanned the room and saw a group of well dressed individuals who were keeping to a corner. They also had large black circles tattooed on their right shoulders, the tattoo consisted of one large black circle with 8 others inside of it in descending size, and there was a number and a word in each of the spaces between the circles. It wasn't until she managed to read one of the words that she realized what the tattoo was. When one of the group, a man, walked by her, she saw the space in between the first and second circle read 1. Limbo.

"Who are the guys with the inferno tattoos?" Andrew seemed to just notice them, when he saw them he too a long hard look at them and furrowed his brow.

"Those guys work for Littlehorn and associates" What the hell are those guys doing here, Andrew thought. These were very dangerous and sadistic individuals.

"They sound like a law firm." McKenna pondered as to what use a law firm would be in a world where most, if not all, disputes were settled with a weapon.

"No, these guys are contract killers; these are the worst motherfuckers in the wasteland. That organization is comprised of the worst of the worst on the east coast. They make Talon company look like a band of pre-school bullies." Andrew had worked with them once; he still had nightmares about that night. After he told his father what had happened they had immediately turned down any offers of future partnerships and cut off any communication with the group. Even today he could barely bring himself to describe that night

"Why, from what I've seen and what everyone says, there are plenty of psychos in the wasteland, and didn't you say that the Talons will do any job for caps." McKenna could see the disgust in Andrew's eyes; she had quickly learned that Andrew was a very morally grey person. If Andrew felt this strongly about them, they had to be bad, she thought.

"Talon Company will take every dumb ass that can hold a gun and will do anything. Littlehorn is more selective, he only takes the best of the worst, every member of that group is a sociopath or a psychopath with kill count that looks like a pre-war phone number, and almost all of them are sadists. Moreover, unlike Talon Company, they aren't just crazy; they're elite assassins and warriors. And they only take the big jobs, high profile assassinations, the razing of entire towns, wholesale slaughter and genocide. That is their business, and it's all controlled by Daniel Littlehorn, he coordinates his entire network from the shadows. Even most members of the organization have no clue where he is. Most believe he is somewhere in the capital wasteland." These people are the stuff of nightmares, he thought.

"Ok, what about those guys" McKenna pointed out a group of people making themselves conspicuous by actively trying to look inconspicuous.

"Those guys are slavers; they work out of Paradise Falls under Eulogy Jones. You can tell by the way they're sizing everyone up, they're trying to figure out how much they could sell you for." Andrew never really cared for slavers, sure there were plenty of caps to be made, but they were really big on stabbing you in the back.

"Excuse me, miss, but is that a pip boy on your arm?" McKenna turned around to see a blonde, white man sporting a flattop haircut, a red T-shirt, black cargo pants, and combat boots.

"Um, yes, why?" McKenna hadn't had anyone ask her about her pip boy other than the occasional question from Moira.

"I might be able to offer you a job." He pulled out a cigarette pack out.

"Can I bum one off of you?" The man nodded and pulled an extra cigarette out for him and handed it to Andrew, who immediately received a deadly glare from McKenna. Andrew gave a slight wince at the glare, much to the man's apparent amusement.

"Let's go outside my friend, I think this young woman has a problem with us smoking." Andrew then followed the man through the crowd to the door.

"We aren't going to let him keep that up, are we?" Amata said as she turned away from Mackenzie.

"Oh hell no, booze is one thing, but I refuse to have any of my friends smoking." McKenna then decided to go meet some new people.

…

"What the hell are you doing here McGraw?" Andrew said as he leaned on the railing outside of the bar.

"We heard a rumor that you were in Megaton; we had planned to kill you after we found the bodies of our brothers, light?" McGraw offered Andrew a match, which he took and lit his cigarette with.

"We were ambushed by a good thirty non-horde raiders, they were well armed and organized, fat man launchers, Chinese assault rifles, energy weapons, combat armor, the whole nine yards. We tried to fight them off, but they had surprise on their side, your guys weren't wearing power armor, and I had left my suit and weapons back in my camp. I honestly barely made it out alive, hell I wouldn't have if those two girls who were sitting by me at the bar hadn't fixed me up." Andrew took a long drag of his cigarette and began to think of ways to take McGraw out if he tried anything.

"We know, after we found our brothers we found a survivor of the group that attacked you. Seriously, those two were the ones that fixed you up; I can believe the tall looker, but the other one can't be more than 16." McGraw liked Andrew; he was a good friend to have.

McGraw agreed with Casdin on many things, such as the prioritization of tech first, and he did believe that a lot of the wastelanders didn't have the brains, the ethics, or the skill to handle tech, but unlike a lot of his brothers, he didn't believe that they were all savages who either needed to be killed or left to die. He could recognize there were plenty of people with skill and intelligence outside of the Brotherhood. He still considered himself a member of the brotherhood as a whole, even if here, he was a member of the Outcasts. He was one if the few who disagreed with Casdin's orders to shoot all members of the original brotherhood on site.

"I know right, that's what I said when I first met her, apparently she's 19. Any idea who outfitted those raiders by the way? No way they got that gear on their own." Andrew visibly relaxed when McGraw said he wasn't there to kill him, Andrew was pretty sure he could take him, but the outcasts made strong allies.

"Casdin thought it was Lyons." McGraw blew smoke out, forming little Os in the air, an ability that Andrew knew he took pride in. A slow familiar smile crept on both of their faces, Casdin thought every attack that looked half-way organized was Lyons.

"Yes and the super mutants harassing the northern patrols are really being captured in D.C. and released into Outcast territory as part of a plan by Lyons to distract the Outcasts so he can prepare to attack." They both chuckled at that, mainly because Casdin had said it after a group of super mutants interrupted a deal near the Calverton church. That had been a good deal for Andrew, 100 laser rifles salvaged from an untouched army depot near New Cumberland, exchanged for 5,000 5.56mm rounds, as well as 2,000 caps. That ambush had gone a lot better for him than the last one he had been caught in.

"The survivor we interrogated told us before our… methods got too much for the poor bastard." If there was one thing that the Outcasts could say they had mastered, it was interrogation, McGraw thought.

"Good who was it, I can have vengeance for someone screwing me out of 1,000 stimpacks, and you guys can have vengeance for getting screwed out of 50 tri-beam laser rifles, oh and your fallen brothers, of course." Andrew didn't mind so much that he had nearly been killed, that came with the job. No, what pissed him off was that they had screwed him out of a good deal.

"Well there's a problem with that." This was the part that McGraw was dreading.

"What is it, come on McGraw, between you, me, my new friends, maybe a battalion of outcasts, we can go and slaughter the assholes easily." Did that sound cocky, Andrew wondered quietly to himself. No, it wasn't bragging if you could back it up, he decided.

"Andrew, listen, from what we got out of the guy he and his allies were part of a mutiny, the men that attacked you were members of the horde." Andrew felt a torrent of emotions rise up inside of him, he had suspected this at first, but he had managed to convince himself that he was wrong. Despite the hurricane going through his head, he maintained a calm and controlled poker face.

"Well, fuck, any word on the command group?" The faces of those who had become his family flashed through his head.

"Three have invoked the sanctuary clause and are on their way to Fort Independence with Outcast escorts, two are confirmed to have taken refuge up north with the Continental Republic of America, one is in Rivet city, and one is M.I.A." The sanctuary clause was part of the deal between the horde and the Outcasts, any member of the command group could seek refuge with the Outcasts, smart thinking on that one, McGraw thought.

"And my parents" Andrew loved the entire command group, they were his family, but he could not deal with his parents dying, at least not yet.

"They checked in at Raven outpost, but they didn't invoke the sanctuary clause, they just told the men at the outpost to get a message to you" McGraw withdrew two more cigarettes and gave one to Andrew.

"What was the message?" Andrew took the fresh cigarette and tossed his old one over the railing, watching as it descended into the pool of radioactive water where the bomb used to be.

"They wanted us to tell you to find a good place to lay low until this whole mess blows over, in other words they manage to take down the horde." McGraw looked at Andrew, he had seen the look on Andrew's face before, it was the look he got when he was thinking of ways to solve a problem, A.K.A. kill someone.

"Kid I know this isn't what you want to hear, but if you ask me that is exactly what you should do, I'm being put in charge of an outpost in D.C. that is trying to access a massive pre-war weapons cache, come with me." McGraw could see him considering it so he decided to press on.

"Hell, bring your new friends; apparently you need a pip boy to get in to the cache, so we could use them. Come on Andrew, think of it as a vacation, all the muties we can kill, all the scotch we can drink, and you and I both know that Olin goes weak in the knees whenever she sees you" When McGraw finished, Andrew, turned toward him.

"McGraw, that sounds like a hell of a good time and I'll have to take you up on it." McGraw was surprised, pleased but surprised; he hadn't expected Andrew to agree this easily.

"Glad that you see reason ki-" Andrew cut McGraw off by raising a hand. Andrew took a long drag of his cigarette and exhaled before speaking.

"I'll have to take you up on, right after I slaughter those traitorous bastards that I used to call my men." Oh yes, Andrew thought, they will suffer.

**Ok guys, I'm finally back. I know that I dropped off of the grid for a month, but I do have good reasons. After school got out I got caught up in looking for a job, martial arts tournaments, and a vacation during which I had no internet access.**

**So first off, I apologize for the delay, I will now be updating much more regularly. This chapter is the product of whatever free time I could find over the past month. Plus I made it way long to make up for the delay.**

**Secondly, I know I promised you guys that the vote would decide this chapter, but I did this instead for two reasons. One is that I had this great idea to introduce all of the factions; the other was to ask this.**

**By the way smut scene won out for the voting.**

**Does anyone have any objection to me doing a lesbian sex scene, if anyone feels that this is discomforting for them or have any real issues with it, then I will not do an actual scene. To those who want to see one I apologize, but I would rather not offend someone. Either voice your concern in a review or forever hold your peace. As I said I will take any reason, whether you feel that it is too mature content for you or you just find the idea discomforting. **

**If no one takes issue, then I will do sex, the horde, , then Operation Anchorage. **

**I'm not trying to sound preachy here guys, I'm just trying to make sure that no one gets offended.**

**Oh yeah, anyone who can guess where I got the middle names gets a virtual cookie. **

**Either way R&R guys, hopefully the next chapter will be out sometime next week.  
**


	17. Chapter 17

During the conversation between McGraw and Andrew

McKenna had taken her drink and left Amata at the bar, she had settled into one of the chairs that had been pulled up to a table for the arm wrestling match between Kodiak and Paul, which Paul had won she was proud to say.

"Do you mind if an old man takes a rest next to you?" McKenna looked up to see a very old looking man in heavy robes carrying a cane.

"Oh, of course, I'm McKenna by the way." McKenna examined the man as he took a seat in the armchair where Burke had sat in while asking her to blow up her new home. What had it been since that had happened 9 days, 10? Time seemed to fly out here as opposed to the vault where days could drag on and on. He was about 6ft 4in. she couldn't tell much about his physique under what she now realized was actually a mismatched assortment of clothing, the most interesting addition being a pip boy on his arm. He was what Nova would call devilishly handsome, his skin was deeply tan and his beard was white and she couldn't see the hair on his head, though he did appear to have hair on his scalp. He reminded her of an actor from an old show; Jonathan Goldstein was the actor's name. He appeared to be in his 70's; the years had been kind to the men from the looks of it

"Hey Gob how's this damn thing work?" A mercenary yelled after discovering the jukebox that Paul and Walter had installed.

"Put caps in it and use the buttons to find a song you like." Gob called from the bar.

And once the merc figured it out, the machine's speakers began to thump with music. The song however was not a 20th century tune however, but a more modern rock song that seemed to fit the occasion perfectly.

_You, my friend, must realize  
The time we have won't last  
You can't erase the past  
Lord knows I've tried  
There are times I've been weighed down  
Black and blue inside me  
Old wounds still residing  
Beneath my skin_

"Isn't that the truth?" McKenna heard the old man mutter under his breath. The song was apparently well known, because within moments most of the bar was singing along.

_So let's raise a glass  
To better days  
Forget the past  
And our wicked ways  
Let me just sing  
This one last song  
And make this feelin' last  
All night long_

"Boy, fetch myself and this fine young lady a bottle of the finest wine this establishment has, oh and tell the finely decayed bartender that the next few rounds are on me, grab a Nuka for your self as well." The old man stopped Harden, who was clearly going to get beers for his father and his father's friends. He then gave the boy a small bag of caps that looked like it had a few hundred caps in it.

"That is nice of you, but I'm afraid I don't-" McKenna was cut off when the man held up a hand.

_A fresh start is what you need  
So let's begin again  
I will be your friend  
From this day on  
You can rely upon me  
If you ever need to  
I will help you get through  
And find your way_

"A 19 year old should have a glass of fine wine every now and then, besides it will make that little feeling in the back of your head telling you that all hell is bearing down on Megaton." That shocked McKenna, no one, not even Amata or Paul knew about the feeling. She had it before every fight in her life, it always came just before a small fight, but if her life was in danger it would pester her for days before the actual event. She had been feeling it all night.

_So let's raise a glass  
To better days  
Forget the past  
And our wicked ways_

"How the hell do you know about that? Who are you?" This man was freaking her out, though she did feel a twinge of happiness that someone finally recognized that she was and adult without being told.

_Let's sing together  
This one last song_

"Who am I, hmmm, you would be surprised how few people will ask you that when you reach my level, some call me the Vault Dweller, others, the Wasteland stranger, I have gone by the Wanderer, Odin, and Cain. But for a fellow former vault dweller, why not the original? My name is Albert Cole." The man gave a small, sad, smile when he said it as if it held a regretted memory

_And make this feelin' last  
All night long_

"How do you know so much about me" said McKenna.

"My dear, we are much more alike than you know. Tell me if I am wrong on any of these, every weapon you hold feels natural, I'm sure you have established preferences, but every weapon feels like it was made for you, or more correctly, you were made for it. When you first took another human's life, you didn't feel what you thought you were supposed to feel, no remorse or sadness, maybe you even felt a little bit of pride, that most likely scares you a bit. You have an amazing array of senses and you are astonishingly agile and intelligent. Am I right so far?"

_Forgive yourself_

McKenna could only nod everything this man said was correct.

_Know all is well  
Dust yourself off  
And tell your blues  
To go to hell_

Gob came over with the bottle of wine, "Sir, while I thank you for the generous payment you gave, I have to know whether or not someone is going to come after these."

"Relax, my delightfully decayed friend, I scavenged those out of a very secure vault in the ruins of the diamond district in New York, the only people who would be angry about me taking them died 200 years ago. Two more things my friend, once the song is done, I would like to make a quick toast and anything not spent buying the next few rounds is to go into a tab for this fine young woman and her friends." Gob nodded and set the bottle and two glasses on the table

"I would say no, but considering you just bought the next 8 rounds, so I think I can make an exception

"You paid in diamonds?" McKenna looked at him incredulously, he simply smiled.

_So let's raise a glass  
To better days  
Forget the past  
And our wicked ways  
Let me just sing  
This one last song  
And make this feelin' last  
All night long_

As the song drew to a close, Gob called for the bar to quiet down, and that the man who was buying their drinks wanted to make a toast. Everyone liked free drinks so they decided to listen.

The man, Albert, raised his glass and said, "Ladies and gentleman, mercs and merchants, slavers trying to hide in the corner." The man paused as every eye in the room turned to the Slavers in question. One of the slavers, most likely high, immediately charged Albert. This man bowled several people over before having his legs swept out from under him by Albert's cane, for such an old man he moved surprisingly fast. Albert then pressed the bottom of the cane into the man's throat, while simultaneously stepping on the man's stomach.

"Young man, I own six canes, one of which is a taser able to emit 10,000 volts, one can fire several 5.56 millimeter rounds, another one extends a six inch stiletto blade, my personal favorites are the one that can shoot lasers and the one that fires bolts of plasma, and one that is just made of the good, sturdy, and very heavy, wood of an oak tree." The slaver's eyes widened in sheer terror as Albert pressed down on his neck even further.

"Whi- which one is this?"

"Well I can't seem to remember, would you care to make a wager as to which one it is." What McKenna was surprised by was the fact that she heard several people actually making bets with their friends as to how the slaver was going to die, which most seemed to agree that 4 out of 6 odds meant death.

AGGGHG, AGHH, AGGGHHH" the slaver screamed and went into spasms as electricity surged into him. McKenna was slightly disturbed when she saw caps change hands between the people she heard betting.

"Hmm, I guess it was the taser." The slavers picked up their friend and were escorted out of town by Simms and the Regulators.

Albert then returned to his toast "As I was saying, Ladies and gentleman, here's to better days, forgetting our wicked ways, and telling our blues to go to hell."

There were cries of "here here" and cheers, everyone loved the guy who bought their drinks.

Albert sat back down and said "My dear, I can imagine that you want answers, and I can guarantee you that you will find them, just not yet, until then you may at least know that you are not alone." The old man gave a small sympathetic smile that also served to tell McKenna that she wasn't going to make any progress on the issue. McKenna took the hint and reluctantly decided to drop it, at least for now.

After that they actually got to talking, for an old guy he was actually pretty interesting, apparently he was from a vault in California, he had left it to find a water chip for his vault after theirs broke. He eventually found one and brought it back to his vault, but when he told his overseer about the super mutant army he was sent out again to stop them.

"Ok hold up, what the heck are super mutants, people keep mentioning them, and apparently D.C. is infested with them, but what the hell are they." McKenna did not like not knowing things.

"Basically they are people were infected with a disease called the Forced Evolutionary Virus, it alters them on a genetic level, this causes punctuated equilibrium. Different strains react to people differently; the super mutants I encountered on the west coast were much closer to us mentally than the ones over here. My assumption is that the super mutants in this area originate from a facility that modified the virus and created a new strain. Honestly, this virus can do almost anything depending on who is being infected and what strain they are being infected with." Albert had put a great deal of study into this topic.

"Ahh, the virus rewrites the genetic code and modifies the body on the cellular level." Genetics was an old passion of McKenna's.

"Yes, exactly, one common trait seems to be a massive increase in Human Growth Hormone and adrenaline, their pigmentation is off so they appear in a variety of colors. Cellular division occurs at a greatly increased rate, mitosis occurs 15% quicker than in normal humans. The recessive genes that cause most common ailments such as cancer and diabetes are eradicated from the genome." The pre-war scientists had finally won the fight against the monsters they had battled with, only to die in nuclear fire and leave an even greater beast for future generations to battle.

"Sounds like their DNA strands are basically flawless." No wonder everyone feared these things, McKenna thought, a steady flow of HGH and adrenalin would be more than enough to create a formidable foe. Add in the high speed mitosis and near flawless DNA, and the beast would be immune to almost any disease thrown at it.

"Yes exactly, and the RNA structure is altered by the virus to produce more rapid transcription-"

"Which would produce enhanced regenerative capacities, resulting in an indefinite lifespan." McKenna could not resist interrupting Albert; the whole idea was so simple, yet so elegant. A minor tweak in the genetic code and agelessness was at hand.

"Correct, there are only two major problems with the virus. The main two strains from which the rest are derived from cause a massive surge of protein and calcium, the protein causes the muscles to expand at an astounding rate, this unfortunately breaks every bone in the body at once, the calcium then causes the bones to heal, and grow, and harden, for all, but the strongest of wills, this would most certainly break the mind and induce the senility and psychosis displayed among them."

McKenna was just sitting there soaking up what Albert said; it brought him no mean amount of pride to have someone hang on his every word like she was. After all a nerd is a nerd no matter how many guns you give them, he thought

Finally someone who actually understands me when I talk about this, Albert thought. It was refreshing to chat with a nice, whip smart, girl like her. But, then again, could he really expect anything less from someone with the gene.

He had seen it in her the moment he saw her, her friends had the gene to, though from the looks of it none of them even suspected that they were anything other than normal humans. He had to wonder if he had been so naïve when he first left vault 13. What truly amazed him though was the sheer number of those with the gene in Megaton.

During all of his travels across the North and Central American continent he had encountered approximately 28, including himself. There were 4 that he had confirmed out west, himself included. One was his own grandson; another was a tribal with the Twisted Hairs who had joined a legion of slavers and now had condemned himself to the same punishment they all eventually succumbed to, to wander. The last one he had met out west was a 4 year old girl currently living in New Reno; she is a member of the Bishop family. Albert suspected the girl might carry his bloodline as well. 3 he had met down in Mexico, two were content to defend their tribes' portions of Mexico City, and one was carving a bloody path to South America, ah well, let that demon be their problem, he thought.

The majority of those he had encountered were in the Canadian and Alaskan wastes, a total of 11. 6 had been battling over the Bering Land Bridge with their various factions last he had seen them, 3 were spread out among isolated villages, and 2 were helping build an empire, one that he might have to topple later, if the rumors were correct. There were also 2 in the Midwest, a tribal boy born in a farming village and an orphaned girl living on the streets.

He had encountered quite a few already on the east coast before he had gotten to Megaton, two down south in the Caribbean leading a fleet of privateers, one was leading a band of pirates to the north around the coasts of New England and Rhode Island. Another was leading the Continental Republic of America. Two were waging political and mafia wars for control over the den of vice and sin known as Atlantic City, Albert had liked the atmosphere, it had reminded him of New Reno. And the last two he had encountered were in Atlanta with the C.D.C.

"Hello, earth to old guy, come in old guy, I think Alzheimer's disease is blocking our transmission." Albert was broken out of his reverie by McKenna, who was currently waving her hand in front of his face.

"Oh yes my apologies, you know what they say about old men and forgetting things." Albert gave a wide smile, complete bullshit to hide the cogs turning in his head.

"First of all, drop the bullshit business man smile, second what?" McKenna never could stand when people tried to hide their thoughts with big smiles.

"I forgot, now, where were we?" They both chuckled at the joke. Despite his best efforts, Albert could not help but return to his train of thought, adding in the 7 he had met today brought the number of those with the gene to 35, a whole platoon of individuals who all held the genetic predisposition to be the next Omar Bradley, or the next Adolf Hitler. The current question to be asked was this. Which would the 7 individuals in this town turn into?

"You were telling me about how you took on an army of super mutants." McKenna could tell that this man was hiding a great many things from her, but she decided to work her way to those things slowly through the things that he was willing to give her.

"Ah that, well I went to the two groups with that I figured would help me, the Followers of the Apocalypse and the Brotherhood of Steel." Albert didn't bother to mention his excursions to gather the evidence that the Brotherhood required.

"The Brotherhood is on the west coast to?" McKenna hadn't expected groups large enough to span the continent.

"Yes, but they were much more selfish than this chapter. The only reason they agreed was because General Maxson, their leader, was actually aware of the problem and just needed to convince the elders. The Followers were a lot easier to convince to help, their leader Nicole was able to give me a full squad of soldiers as opposed to the two I got from the Brotherhood. They were also able to give me valuable Intel on the church." Albert easily brought up his memories of Nicole; she was a very kind woman, sexy to in a punk rocker kind of way. He had bent her over a library table late one night, they had both known neither could form a relationship, but by god, that was a good night. And Katja, Katja was a whole different story.

"Hmm, they sound isolationist" McKenna started to notice a few things. She felt oddly happy and warm, she also felt tingly in her arms and legs, and she felt pleasantly light headed. She looked down at what was her 4th glass of wine, and then she scanned the room for her friends.

She saw Amata at the bar, chatting with Mackenzie again; Mackenzie appeared to be having her try various mixed drinks. Paul was playing a game she recognized from a few parties back in the vault as beer pong. And Moira was dancing with various mercenaries, constantly watched by her brother who kept his hand close to the grip of his gun. McKenna had to smirk as she realized exactly what she was feeling, she had a buzz. In 19 years, she, Paul, and Amata had only tried drinking once and all it took was one decent party outside of the vault for it to become commonplace. Ah well add it to the list of adaptations since leaving the vault, McKenna thought.

"Now you're the one who seems to have lost it, but yes, they are. After I got the aid I needed, I led a raid on the mutant command base with a joint team of Brotherhood assault paladins, Follower invaders, and my personal companions. We fought our way down to The Master's chambers, he was the mutant leader, I actually managed to convince him to kill himself, he did so by detonating a tactical nuclear weapon." Albert could tell this girl was a virgin drinker, it probably bothered her how easily he had convinced her to start, but that was his skill, he was a talker, a negotiator.

"He killed himself with a nuke, damn, that sounds intense" The mention of a nuke drove McKenna's attention straight back to Albert.

"Yeah, it was, after that I then led another raid on the source of the mutants."

"Did that end with another nuke?"

"No, that time I just used the bases self destruct system to blow the place to hell." Albert felt an old cockiness rise up inside him.

"You seem to have a fondness for blowing things up; perhaps I should introduce you to my friend Paul. Who knows what you could blow up together?" McKenna pointed to Paul, who was still proving his precision with ping pong balls on the table set up near the jukebox.

"Perhaps later, he looks rather busy getting drunk off of his ass." Albert could see the young black man downing his 5th cup of beer; he was a seriously good player though. From the looks of it he had just won his 8th game.

From there they talked about completely random things, from pre-war politics to the cause of the Great War.

"Personally, I blame the Two-Party System for the Great War" McKenna said.

"The after party is the one you want to attend" Albert said with a chuckle.

They even talked about the chosen attire of her childhood bully.

"Seriously, Butch thought he looked cool in that getup" She pulled up a picture of him she had on her pip boy. She had taken it for blackmail.

"Guys should leave the tight pants to the ladies, if I can see the coins in their pocket; they should use them to call a tailor."

They both had a good laugh at that.

...

Three hours later

As they chatted the night wound down, people slowly trickled out of the bar to their various homes or the common house. Andrew hadn't come back in after his chat with the large man in the blood red shirt. Paul had gone home by Moira, who had been yelling something about a hangover cure. Jack had stayed behind to watch the girls, He realized that these girls were deadly, but he also knew what could happen to two girls who had a few drinks and walked home in the dark. Amata was helping Mackenzie clean up the bar with Sean; they had volunteered to clean up for Nova and Gob, who had opted to hit the sack when most of the patrons had gone.

McKenna looked down at her pip boy and saw it was 2:00 AM then she looked up at Albert.

"It's getting late, I should probably go. Will you be in town long?"

"Oh, maybe a day or 2 more, I am called the wanderer for a reason after all." Albert gave another small sad smile.

"Well, thank you for the wine, good night." McKenna stood up and turned to get Amata and go.

"Sleep well my dear; it has been a pleasure meeting you."

McKenna walked over to Amata, who was picking up glasses from various tables.

"Hey babe, ready to head home?"

"Sure, later guys." Amata slipped her arm around her and drew McKenna close to her side. They then headed for the door, closely followed by Jack.

…

McKenna sighed as she climbed up the last rung of the ladder into their room. Jack was crashing on their couch. Just as they had gotten in the house, it had began to rain, which apparently was heavily irradiated so it was safer for Jack to stay with them and Paul to stay at Moira's.

"Damn that was fun, sure as hell didn't have parties like that in the vault." McKenna leaned against the wall and slipped her tennis shoes off.

**(OK Guys this is just one last cover-my-ass warning, the next several paragraphs contain vivid lesbian sex, very explicit, so if that makes you uncomfortable please skip it, don't ban me)**

"Yeah, now, where were we?" Amata immediately pinned McKenna against the wall and slid her tongue into McKenna's mouth, they struggled for control before McKenna quickly allowed herself to be dominated by Amata. McKenna felt Amata's hands grab her ass as her body was pressed hard against the cold metal wall. McKenna wrapped her legs around Amata's waist and her arms fell to her lover's shoulders as Amata lifted McKenna up to meet her eyes.

Amata pulled away from the wall and carried McKenna across the room, caressing her girlfriend's tongue with her own the entire time. The two collapsed onto the bed with Amata on top. Amata began to tear McKenna's blouse off without even bothering to undo the buttons.

"You're going to ruin my blouse." McKenna rasped in between heavy breaths as she pulled away from the kiss.

"I don't give a damn, besides there are, like 12 more in the wardrobes" Amata pulled away from McKenna to achieve a kneeling position on McKenna's hips. Amata pulled the lace top up over her head and tossing the shirt across the room. She then dropped down again to embrace McKenna once more. She let her tongue slither back into her lover's mouth; she used one hand to undo the buttons on McKenna's blouse and slid the other under her beloved's waistband to drive her fingers deep into McKenna.

McKenna moaned gently into Amata's mouth, Amata picked up the pace as she undid the last button on McKenna's blouse, she added another finger, and another, and by the time she tossed McKenna's blouse away she was driving 4 fingers into McKenna's sex. Not to be outdone, McKenna reached behind Amata and undid the clasps on her bra while Amata used her free hand to do the same to McKenna. Amata pulled away from the kiss and began to suck hard on that one spot between McKenna's collar and shoulder bone that drove her wild.

"Ohhhh aaahhhhh" McKenna's hands went up and began to knead Amata's soft, supple breasts. Amata moved her fingers even faster as McKenna began to roll her hips to the motions of Amata's hands. Finally it was too much for McKenna to take and she was sent over the edge into an orgasm.

"Ahhhhh, damn, fuuuck" McKenna screamed as waves of ecstasy crashed over her. McKenna went completely rigid for a second before going completely limp.

"¿Tenido suficiente mi amor?" Amata said as she looked deep into McKenna's azure eyes, she knew McKenna loved it when she spoke Spanish.

"¡Quisieras!" McKenna leveraged her weight and rolled over to take Amata's place on top. She undid the button and zipper on Amata's jeans and pulled them off to discover her girlfriend wasn't wearing any panties. McKenna looked up quizzically at her lover.

"What, I was trying to seduce you before we left, remember?" McKenna just laughed and buried her face in between Amata's legs. Amata used her legs to edge her girlfriend's pants off before wrapping them around McKenna's head, driving her face deeper into Amata's sex.

McKenna dug her tongue deep into Amata's sex and swirled it around. Amata began bobbing her hips to every hot lick McKenna delivered. Amata was soon inches away from her own climax.

"Oh yes, oh god yes" Amata yelled as she came to a screaming orgasm just as McKenna found her G-Spot. Good lord that girl has one hell of a tongue, Amata thought as McKenna crawled forward to collapse next to her girlfriend. Amata rolled over to a spooning position and wrapped her arms around McKenna.

"Night Kenna."

"Night Mata" with a quick kiss they both let the void of sleep take them.

**( Ok we're good, like I said before, if you don't like it, don't read it, just skip it.)**

…..

The next morning

Paul opened his eyes slowly, surprised at the lack of a pounding hangover. It took him a second to figure out that he was not in his bed and the room he was in was not his either. He was also surprised to find out two things, one was that he was naked, and the other was that there was a rather attractive and familiar redhead lying on top of him.

Let's see, red hair, freckles, who do I know like that, he thought. Paul looked around the room and spotted 4 lead lined boxes and realized he was at Moira's.

"Oh shit, I fucked Moira; Jack is going to murder me, the girls are going to murder me. I am going to die." Paul whispered as he looked down at Moira, whose head was currently resting on his chest.

"Morning, last night was great." Moira said before she yawned and stretched like a cat, showcasing what Paul now realized was a fantastic set of breasts.

"Yeah, want to go again?" Well if I'm going to die, I might as well die happy, he thought.

**Well guys I know I'm late, but this yuri scene was a real challenge. **

**BTW what did you guys think of the song, it's Better Days by the Dirges. Anyone know what movie I got it from.**

**I tried a lot of new things in this chapter, not to mention a big risk of getting banned with the sex scene according to a friend, so please tell me what you think, if you hated it then tell me how much it sucks. If you loved it, well then I'm always happy to hear how awesome I am.**

**Either way R&R as always I'm off to the Windy City for the weekend. Later people.**


End file.
